Bob Warfield's comments on his survey are interesting, and perhaps give some clues as to the way things are going.
Firstly, he notes that the rise of popularity LinuxCNC coincides with the creation of PathPilot. No surprise there, in the sense that PathPilot has brought associated publicity. Second, he says that "It’s also clear that the new controls that don’t require PC’s such as GRBL are taking share rapidly too." I find that significant as it echoes what has happened in computing as a whole. I'm old enough to remember the days of pre-personal computing, and I see the same broad pattern developing with computers and software, where the user's need for an understanding of the electronics and of what goes on under the hood has been cleverly minimised. I used to teach all that stuff for a living, but you would be hard pushed to get much interest now. That's a big disadvantage for potential customers/users, particularly if you are asking them to switch from one of the attractive GUI-driven packages to something which requires more knowledge and intervention from the user (like LinuxCNC). Conversely, the ability to intervene and customise is one of the great strengths of LinuxCNC, and, to some extent, Linux itself. I have a friend who is extremely versed in computing, electronics and software, having worked for one of the very large computing firms since the very early days, He's just built a router, but, despite his ability with Linux, has opted for a GRBL board because it is a fit-and-forget solution (and its also relatively cheap by comparison with a full pc solution). Bob's survey comments on the rise of this kind of device. One could argue that LinuxCNC should run on a cheap single-board computer like the BeagleBone, but others have pursued a flavour of that sort, to some extent. Yes; I know it precludes the likes of the MESA boards, and is a somewhat crippled solution, but my point is that a substantial slice of the potential market is looking for that kind of solution. One interesting, but not unexpected, result from the survey is what is happening to Mach3, and not happening to Mach4. I run Mach3 as well as LinuxCNC, but it has been stuck in a time warp for a long time now, and I suspect it will gradually flop to a soft landing as XP machines die. Mach 4 is not showing the same signs of mass adoption, perhaps because of the price. That tells us something about the market, too. PathPilot has brought some good publicity and awareness, and that may be paying off for the LinuxCNC community. Those who come to LinuxCNC need to be computer literate, but those are the very folks who may be more likely to be able to contribute to development. 'Ordinary' users won't/can't, and those who run a CAD/CAM package which will output G-code for LinuxCNC (like the Vectric packages, for example) need only run LinuxCNC rather than use it to its full potential, so they are unlikely to contribute to development either, except perhaps to suggest directions for development. Marcus On 28 Aug 2016, at 00:30, John Alexander Stewart wrote: > Agree that LinuxCNC is fantastic. > > What gets me is the number of Mach3 users - why don't they switch? Is it > that they are (essentially) computer illiterate, and know only Windows > (barely), or is it just momentum in the home hobbyist field?? > > (I'm lucky in that I was "into" wire-wrapping computers as a teenager (RCA > 1802, Intel 8085...) but I do understand that many of my age group have a > different relationship with computers, so when I ask the first question, > above, it's not meant as a slight against them - it's just - how do we get > more people to use and improve LinuxCNC?) > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
