On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 11:09 PM, al davis <ad...@freeelectron.net> wrote: > > If you look at free/open-source software as a product to be > consumed, like you consume commercial products, you will > probably be disappointed.
I disagree. While writing OSS has value in its own (as a method of gaining experience and skills by the author, and perhaps leaving some bits and pieces for someone to pick up later), primary motivation for doing it should be the same as in case of CSS - making a useful product. If that's not the case, then either OS methodology doesn't work or it is executed incorrectly. OSS has an interesting property - a "critical mass of functionality". Once an OS program reaches the level at which it which it does something useful for the users, both user and developer base start growing exponentially. It takes a lot of time and work for the original author to reach this level, though. And in a field as competitive as EDA even that might not be enough. The bottom line is - there is nothing wrong with recommending Ltspice to users that need its functionality (especially that it is a very good tool and we can't match its functionality yet). Making the users aware of existence of Ngspice or Gnucap? Sure. Winning them over the features - not yet. Andrzej _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user