Mach3 has some huge issues to overcome - if it is even possible. The software is stagnant and has been for years. Typical situation: A user upgrades to the newest version of Mach3 and has a problem, states the problem on the email list and gets no response. Problems are not fixed and the users appear to be apathetic about supplying assistance since there is oftentimes no fix available anyway. They have been working on Mach4 for a very long time (4 years??) and now they are clearly in a game of catchup.
The Mach guys would have been better off picking one hardware board set and developing their Mach4 software with that board set in mind. That would have alienated many of the existing hardware vendors but right now they have nothing new and problems are simply not being resolved. Unfortunate, especially if you are a hardware vendor for the Mach3 software or if you have committed a lot of time to Mach3. >>I'm convinced Mach will eventually succumb to Microsoft anklebiting.<< They might survive Windows 8, but after that.. good luck! By that time Microsoft will be trying to figure out how they can overtake the wristwatch style Android and Apple videophone market, while they suffer from confusion over why "Office" is not selling well.. Geez..... I have several machines running in plants that use LinuxCNC/EMC2 and the operators have no clue what software they are using and even less interest in learning about it. Load the Gcode program, load the material, hit the run button.. If I asked them how they like the EMC2 software they would just say "huh?". Even though they use it every day they have no idea what it is or what it means. The maintenance guys load new programs onto the controllers and the foreman tells the operators how many pieces to run off with what program.. It just runs. I get very few support calls for the software. I usually get called when the hardware fails and I have to recreate a new hardrive for them. Dave On 8/3/2012 5:05 PM, Eric Keller wrote: > On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 4:29 PM, Mike Payson<[email protected]> wrote: > > >> Unfortunately, this survey tells us nothing at all about the real >> popularity of anything. All we can tell for sure is that more Mach users >> have heard about the poll. The matter is made worse by the tiny sample >> set-- he is reaching conclusions based a sample of only 100 >> non-randomly-selected users. Unfortunately the two factors together combine >> to make the matter effectively meaningless. >> -------------------------------------------------------------- >> > To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how much this affects most of us. > Anyone that wants to use anything other than step/dir usually ends up > using linuxcnc eventually anyway. And Linuxcnc garners a reasonable > portion of the step/dir market too. I'm convinced Mach will > eventually succumb to Microsoft anklebiting. Of course, using PCs > for anything useful may eventually succumb to the iPad syndrome, but > who knows? > > There are lots of people that are using Linuxcnc that we never hear > from. The person that is responsible for the Shapeoko project, Edward > Ford, is almost never heard from, but he's using Linuxcnc. I don't > think most home cnc machines get any public exposure, and the > commercial machines that use linuxcnc are even less likely to get > public exposure. Popularity isn't that important to most users. > Eric Keller > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Live Security Virtual Conference > Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and > threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions > will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware > threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
