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Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] New (free) PCB software

2010-07-05 by DJ Delorie

I looked at the press release a little, and it does't seem any more 
"free" than anything else we already have, except that you have to join 
their community to unlock the software.  Even Eagle doesn't make you 
join their community for their "free" version, and gEDA and Kicad have 
been even more free (and sometimes more professional) than the give-away 
proprietary stuff.

Plus, it seems to be a node-locked single-user license, limited to one 
license per DesignSpark member, unless you ask for an exception.  Their 
privacy policy explicitly states that they'll use your personal 
information to spam you, too - information you have to give them to 
activate their product.

It looks like EDA software is becoming such a commodity item that 
every's starting to use theirs as a loss leader to get people hooked 
into other aspects of their business - pcb fab, design forums, extended 
features, advertising.  I'm reserving judgement on whether or not this 
is a good thing - competition is good, but fragmentation can be worse.

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