Re: gEDA-user: Open-source friendly EE programs

[Al Davis <ad62@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's a little experiment that happened a few months ago ....

Senior capstone.  They need to do a PC board.  I gave them a 
choice of either Eagle (runs on Windows) or PCB (runs on 
anything except windows).

In either case, they were provided a machine, with the disk 
wiped clean, and the install CD's, and instructions: "These 
machines are yours for the term.  Install whatever you want."

There were 5 teams.

One team installed Mandrake and PCB on the provided machine, and 
used it successfully.

One team installed PCB on a Macintosh at home.

Two teams installed PCB on a Linux box at home.

One team installed Eagle on a PC at home.


The team that used Eagle had by far the most trouble with the 
project.

This comparison added a snag that most leave out:  In most 
comparisons, Windows is given the advantage because it is 
already installed and supported.  If you want to use Linux you 
need to do it yourself.  In this case, even to use Windows, 
they had to install it themselves.