All good stuff and well spoken guys, time to get down and dirty with the next layout.
Cheers Robert Gillatt R'theta Electronics -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mira Sent: 27 January 2008 09:24 To: Protel EDA Discussion List Subject: Re: [PEDA] More SPs for older major versions? If the price is high or getting higher, there is a 90% probability that the software will be cracked. Some companies tolerate this because it gives the users a chance to view its capabilities. If they keep control on who is using the software, they'll loose. It's easy these days to get a free license for some time and get a feeling of what this software does but it was impossible to do this in the past. I don't believe that any company is interested in supporting the old versions of their software. These are generally companies, which don't pay maintenance and therefore they don't get upgrades or don't want to pay for upgrades. Who would invest in activity, which is not funded. I'm sure that Altium is reading all bug reports but they decide which one to fix based on the weather that day. They sure haven't found a way to get the maximum from the people who are testing the software. Mira --- Geoff Harland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > A sad consequence of all this is that Altium > actually lose sales and the > > community bcomes more closed as a result of > "cracked" versions in > > circulation. A university lecturer friend tells me > that ALL the students in > > his classes have got hold of (and sometimes use!) > cracked versions of Protel > > and DXP. Altium will find it hard to maintain the > moral high ground when > > they charge $10,000 for software that is > expensive, is buggy, is always > > going to be buggy and has a limited lifespan. I > bought a one-time licence > > for SE a long time ago but when it no longer wants > to play with the latest > > Windows OS then I shall be looking around for an > affordable alternative. My > > tendency is towards Tsien at the moment; take a > look guys. > > > > Robert Gillatt > > In this day and age, there are probably very few (if > any) software applications which have not been > "cracked" to at least some extent. So to the extent > that there is a difference in that regard, some > applications have been cracked to a greater extent > than others. > > I have no idea to what extent Altium's products have > been cracked; doubtless the degree of piracy also > varies between different countries. But it is still > hard to feel sorry for Altium, given the way it has > treated its customers. I suspect that I am far from > the only customer who has prepared a detailed report describing the > nature and scope of a defect, only to not even receive any response > whatsoever to my report. (That hasn't happened on every single > occasion that I have submitted a bug report, but it > has still happened on a number of occasions, and for > a significant proportion of bug reports which I have > submitted.) > > But given the ongoing development of open-source CAD applications, > where the efforts of developers are augmented by bug-fixes submitted > by those applications' users (and where those users do have > the potential to fix any defects themselves, given > that they have access to the relevant source code), > it is becoming increasingly ill-advised for > companies such as Altium to treat their customers so > shabilly. While they have managed to survive to > date, I still definitely wouldn't want to make any > serious wager that they will still be around ten > years (say) from now; perhaps even five years from > now. Although I have some cause to believe that they > might have lifted their act to some extent with > AD2006 (though I can't vouch for personally, given > that I have never used it), it could well still be a > case of "too little, too late" in that regard. > > And as far as piracy of software in general is > concerned, that could be regarded as "market forces" > in action. So-called "neo-classic" economic theory > stipulates that the "natural" price of any product > or service is the marginal cost associated with > providing it. And in the case of software, that cost > is almost zero. (What is the cost of a CD or DVD > containing copies of the relevant files, and the > cost of actually creating that CD or DVD?) > > In making that observation, I am not condoning > piracy. However, such "market forces" are not the > only threat that software companies have to contend > with; they also have to contend with open-source applications, whose > developers can be regarded as providing their "product" to the > world-at-large for free. > > While there have been some who have attempted to > prevent the release of open-source software, I > believe that they all deserve to fail in their > efforts. It is one thing for software companies to > be permitted to take action against those pirating > their applications, but they definitely shouldn't > also be permitted to prevent anyone else from > releasing any software (which they have written > themselves) into the public domain. > > Regards, > Geoff. > > > Make the switch to the world's best email. Get > the new Yahoo!7 Mail now. > www.yahoo7.com.au/worldsbestemail > > > ____________________________________________________________ > You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum > > To Post messages: > mailto:[email protected] > > Unsubscribe and Other Options: > http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com > > Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): > http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > ____________________________________________________________________________ ________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
