Hamid -
The auto update feature of AD6 is totally within your control to turn
off, or set the frequency. If you turn on the update, it will tell
you that an update is available, then ask if you want to
download. When the download is complete, it will ask you if you want
to install now, or wait. You can also choose to download the updates
exactly as you have in the past from the Altium web site.
There are real beta testers - not professional testers, or
developers. You can volunteer to be one if you wish. The signup is
on the Altium website. The developers do not do all the testing
themselves, nor did professional testers - real users that you see on
the Altium forum every day did the testing. Nobody can find problems
like someone who tries to use the product to do real work. They
didn't find all of the problems, but that goes back to what I said
before. Had you volunteered to be a tester, you could have enjoyed
nearly instantaneous communication with the folks who write and
maintain the software - as well as the CEO of Altium himself. You
would have been able to complain directly to the people who can make
a difference, instead of just shouting into the wind.
I'm not an expert rider; however, I've been riding horses for about
60 years (if you count the years I was tied onto the saddle to keep
me in place). When you ride a horse, there are two brains working to
keep you from running into, and off of, things. When you drive a
car, there is often only part of one brain doing the controlling. In
my view, that makes the horse the easier of the two to use - and
still the one that is the biggest pain in the rump. Even with a half
brain in control, the car gets you there faster and without as much
pain (assuming the half brain stays on the road, and doesn't run into
anything).
It wasn't intended as an analogy - it was pointed humor... I hate it
when I have to explain.
Regards - Harry
At 04:45 AM 12/31/2005, you wrote:
Harry,
Thanks for taking the time for the detailed reply. It is greatly
appreciated. A few comments:
You should have called your local sales office to get it in writing.
I actually had a call from them earlier this week, but when I saw
the Altium caller ID, I did not pick up. I do not even want to talk
to them in the few weeks before the end of a quarter. Actually,
this is not just the end of the quarter, it is the end of their
fiscal year. It is my personal experience that they will tell
whatever lies they need to tell to book a sale in the quarter. That
is how they got me to buy the DXP downgrade in June 2003. I agreed
to buy on the condition that I wanted a 60 day return instead of the
30 days (I was going away for 3 weeks) and with the absolute
assurance the SP3 was going to be released the next 2 weeks. When I
tried to return after 45 days, I was told that the 30 days was set
in stone. The sales person even acknowledged that he had agreed to
60 days, but could not actually honor it. We all know about
SP3. There is no way I would trust anything coming out of their
mouths when they are up against a deadline. All that said, I freely
acknowledge that it was my fault for not getting it all in writing.
AD6 has an automated web update capability which allows smaller,
more frequent patches - sort of like Microsoft does with Windows.
My firewall is set to not allow AD access to the web. I can't
express how stupid a person has to be to allow an application, be it
AD or Windows, to automatically go and download updates. "It was
working today and then it decided to get an update and now it is no
longer working and I have a board that need to go out to fab in the
morning." If you can not see yourself in that position, you are
waaaaay too trusting.
My point being that you can only test to a reasonable
point. Beyond that, you have to depend on user feedback to try and
track down the state related glitches.
You are very right and the point is well taken. However, you
focused almost solely on state related glitches (software crashes on
xyz graphics card, wile watching a DVD and downloading a MP3). No
company can test for all of them and frankly not all of those
failures are the fault of the software that actually fails. My
problem is that Altium has demonstrated a lack of testing of basic
functions and features. If you look at some of the bug fixes in any
SP1, you really have to wonder if the software was ever
tested. When you look at it in combination with the marketing hype
about how well the software has been tested, you are hard pressed to
give the company any credibility.
In the past, Altium's problem appears to be that it is the
developers and maybe professional "testers" that do the
testing. That is a model that does not work, not for Altium, not
for any company. If you want to test the software, you need people
who have real world experience in the product's application area do
the testing by using real world examples. A captive PCB design
company that uses the pre-release products to actually design
customer boards would do wonders for the reliability of the
product. I know of one company, not in this industry, that credits
that model to the reliability of its products.
With a cynical outlook like yours....
Cynicism is what keeps me from wasting time on unreliable tools --
and Altium has worked long and hard at earning that reputation for
unreliability. I am all for leading edge technology, but I will
pass on bleeding edge technology, especially bleeding edge
technology from a hemophiliac company.
I've gotten more skillful at using the tools in AD, so my
productivity has vastly improved. Its a good thing too, because
the boards I need to design keep getting denser and more
complicated as technology advances.
Frankly, having done a few simple boards in 2004, I can not foresee
myself reaching the level of productivity I have in 99SE. I have
played with AD, but have not done a complete board. The boards I do
include embedded Pentium motherboards that are of the same
complexity level as a typical laptop motherboard with differential
pairs, controlled impedance and matched lengths (the match being
from die to die, accounting for the unique length of each signal on the BGA).
You can learn how to drive a car (which is more complicated than
riding a horse), or you can keep riding your horse. The car has
more controls than the horse, but it gets you there faster with
less pain in your backside.
Bad analogy. Unless you plan to do nothing more than sit on a horse
while it wanders around the pasture, a horse actually has far more
controls than an automobile. Frankly, knowing a couple of
championship level riders as well as professional level drivers, I
will have to say that riding at that level requires far more skill
than driving at that level. And depending upon what you want to do,
there are things that you do on a horse that you can not do in an automobile.
Regards,
Hamid
snip
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