[cad-linux] Re: Open-source Parametric software for Architect s

On Sat, 2002-09-14 at 00:26, phrostie wrote:
[snip]
> > Here's the tough question: If there were a state of the art CAD program
> > that was free, would you really be that much better off in you profession?
> > Flame if you must, but it's a question worth considering.

[snip]
> venders.  a few years ago a couple of venders played with Linux releases.   
> for the most part they were kill by the half hearted approach that the 
> venders took.  finding information on them was like pulling teeth.  In the 
> end they were pulled with more fanfare than their release.

...and Linux has come a real long way in that time.

I didn't use to work for a massive firm, it was a just a small 6 man
team and software costs were a big issue. Unimportant compared to big
firms maybe but there were quite a few small firms like us in the area.
If there were a state of the art program that was free it would have
helped us reduce costs and be more competitive. We wouldn't loose work
from things like dongels breaking and waiting for them to be replaced.
The usual arguement to that is that Linux takes a lot of upkeep but
after looking after the win98/2000 machines for a year and a half, they
are much harder work to keep from crashing.

If it was opensource we could have tied it in better with the data
processing application that converted datalogged building survey data to
dwg and ran on the Linux servers. If it were GPL we could share any
changes we made with others and benefit from any advances they made. 

I don't think just because other projects have failed or not become
popular is a reason to stop trying. (This probably isn't what you ment,
and I'm not flaming at all) There's plenty of opensource projects that
have made it, and made the commercial products look like a waste in
comparison. Some of the fastest developing projects are those with
commercial support like Openoffice, and it's helped sun fight against a
difficult rival. Autodesk isn't without some serious rivals so wouldn't
it be cool if Autodesk had some open source projects? :-) (worth a try)

Guy Edwards

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