Re: What we want from software vendors (Was: CAD software for PCB engineering and routing)

* Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@xxxxxxxxx> [2008 Jun 22 01:45 -0500]:
2008/6/22 Nate Bargmann <n0nb@xxxxxxx>:
* Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@xxxxxxxxx> [2008 Jun 21 10:05 -0500]:

When someone develops and maintains a FOSS solution that runs on Linux
that lets me interoperate with my Solidworks-using colleagues
flawlessly I will happily donate to the project twice what I would be
paying to Solid. That's a lot of money to motivate someone. Until they
fill that need that I have, I will continue to use the only solution
that exists, which is a proprietary solution.

I understand what you're asking for and where you're coming from. Are
the CAD document file formats open or are they proprietary like .doc
and .xls, etc.? The answer is important to anyone choosing to
implement your idea.


Proprietary binary formats.

Which makes your whole proposition very dicey. As a practical matter,
trying to implement not publicly documented formats leads to a "chasing
of the taillights" scenario where every time the FOSS developers get
close to full interoperability, the company will issue a new release
that breaks the format in various ways.

As a legal matter, the FOSS developers could face DMCA lawsuits.

Only if your vendor becomes convinced that a sufficient market exists
will they port their software to Linux. In the mean time, VM Ware may
be your best option.

- Nate >>

--

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possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true."

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