Re: gEDA-user: Manual routing only

[Karel Kulhavy <clock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Jan 29, 2005 at 10:11:09AM -0500, Bob Paddock wrote:
> On Saturday 29 January 2005 09:32 am, Xtian Xultz wrote:
> 
> > > "Manual routing only."
> > > (http://opencollector.org/collector.php)
> > >
> > > This is IMHO wrong. PCB has autorouting too.
> 
> > I never used auto routing in any EDA software
> 
> I think the point is that many people discount PCB because they do not know
> it has all of the features that it does.  They Google for 'pcb' find the home 
> page, it is the first hit in Google, with the ancient  1.63 version give it a 
> try, get frustrated then move on to something else like Eagle, or worse get 
> scared off because the page talks about patches, GLIBC etc.    Yes I know it 
> says "The Latest PCB stuff on sourceforge" at the top but people don't always 
> read that...  Even the pcb.sf.net page might turn off a lot of people because 
> it does not mention that PCB works on Windows, via Cygwin.
> 
> I am trying to convince my boss to use PCB so I am sensitive to the marketing
> of PCB, and how the the first impression of using the program comes across.
> It might seem odd to talk of marketing of PCB but the reality is that is what 
> is needed to increase the ranks of PCB users.  More users in the long
> term result in the contribution of more libraries, new ideas, new people to 
> add features etc...

You might even considering using the same model as Ronja uses - develop
something, assign a price and then wait until people send enough money gift ;-)
You wouldn't then be tempted to the mantra "it's for free, you expect too much
from it" :)

Then if I needed some feature on Ronja I would have no other option than
sending some money to you, to get it working :) (Know I am undercutting the
branch I am hanging on at this moment ;-) )

Of course taking money for bugfixes in IMHO not a good idea, just for new
features.

Yes, free technology needs marketing too. But as free technology is a system
that is designed to avoid deception, contrary to proprietary technology
marketing where deception is common, here the word "marketing" should not be
perceived as connected to deception.

And the usual carrier for free technology marketing should IMO be a good word
of mouth and happy user base, not some (expensive!) ads and campaigns.

Cl<