Hi, I've been on both sides of these discussions.
This is not a defence of Autodesk, but this type of "you could just recompile it" does not even come close to addressing the cost of releasing a product on a platform. You need development team members conversant with the new platform, which is serious cost. When you add a new platform, testing and debugging are probably 10x the cost of the initial port. Then you have a code train that has to keep up with the main source code, meaning you pay the testing cost for every release. Even that is not the biggest issue. IMO, the biggest issue is one of support and support staffing. When you are a big company offering a product, some of your customers expect very responsive support, so that becomes the base of your support model. In that model, adding a platform means either retraining or adding staff capable of providing support on the new platform. This is based on the time zones as well as demand. It goes on and on, but these are the kinds of things a big company factor into software releases on different platform. It's easier to just dismiss it rather than doing the entire cost justification calculation. jerry On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 3:35 PM, Bruce Layne <linux...@thinkingdevices.com> wrote: > > > On 09/18/2015 05:22 PM, andy pugh wrote: > > I just noticed that in the Autodesk store you can actually click on a > Penguin: > > http://store.autodesk.co.uk/store/adsk/en_GB/DisplayHomePage > > Autodesk definitely seems to be making a strong push into the large > market of small shop users with some of their products and marketing in > the last few years, probably after SolidWorks ate their lunch. I was > encouraged by AutoDesk's recent shift in marketing strategy and went > onto their forum to encourage them to gain a competitive edge by > providing solutions to the Linux and LinuxCNC community that is under > served in the the CAD/CAM marketplace. However, the AutoDesk > representative was very dismissive. Despite my effort to make a strong > and realistic business case, I was hit with the same old nonsense. > Linux users refuse to pay for software, so AutoDesk won't spend any time > developing software for Linux users even though they deliberately > selected cross platform development tools to make it easier to develop > products for Windows and Mac, and Linux wouldn't take much additional > effort. They seemed to have a religious aversion to Linux. It reminded > me of Microsoft comparing Linux to cancer. I tried to explain that BY > FAR the most expensive software I've ever purchased was electronic CAD > software that I bought specifically because it ran as native Linux code, > but my first person example was simply ignored and AutoDesk continued > with that old saw about Linux users not paying for software. > > Several of us who were advocating for Linux support on the AutoDesk > forum were summarily dismissed in a manner that felt like ridicule and > derision. It's a lost opportunity for AutoDesk. Despite their recent > products targeting the large market consisting of small shops, I guess > they still don't understand their market and they'll continue to lose > out on some low hanging fruit. They'd apparently prefer to compete in a > crowded corner of a very competitive market rather than recompile their > existing products for the Linux market that would be grateful for a > serious CAD/CAM product. This seems nuts to me, considering the > incremental cost of selling another copy of commercial software is very > low and adding loyal Linux customers would greatly contribute to paying > their significant development costs. > > I'll continue to write G code by hand, use PyCam, and play with FreeCAD > while waiting for it to mature. I like where it's going. > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > -- Jerry Scharf FINsix IT 650.285.6361 w 650.279.7017 m ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
