Re: gEDA-user: Guerilla marketing...

[John Doty <jpd@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 30, 2009, at 11:01 AM, Steve Meier wrote:

> This is a chicken and egg problem.
>
> With revenue in the billions the major eda tool companies have far  
> more
> resources to keep developing capabilities.

Bloat and complexity are expensive for everybody.

>
>
> On Fri, 2009-01-30 at 10:23 -0700, John Doty wrote:
>> On Jan 29, 2009, at 11:40 PM, Steve Meier wrote:
>>
>>> Let us be clear on this concept. The EDA market place is in the 4  
>>> to 5
>>> billion dollar range per year.
>>>
>>> http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/business/showArticle.jhtml?
>>> articleID=175701340
>>>
>>> You can do all the gorilla marketing that you want to end users who
>>> are
>>> tied to the dominant tool sets, but it won't do you any good.
>>
>> When Jobs and Wozniak were tinkering in that garage, the dominant
>> computer hardware was System/370. They were wise not to try to
>> compete with that.
>
> jobs and woz used a disruptive technology (the integrated circuit) to
> compete with the bigger hardware.

And FOSS is disruptive technology, for sure.

>
>>
>>> If you
>>> want to get these users to move to another tool set there has to  
>>> be a
>>> migration path and an interoperability path.
>>
>> gEDA's interoperability at the netlist level is better than any other
>> thing I've seen. Nobody has solved graphical interoperability here,
>> and gEDA won't either.
>
> geda and pcb lag far behind in interoperability with other layout
> programs and with vendor support for capabilities such as programming
> their flying probe testers.

I've never used pcb, so I can't comment. But gEDA is a great front  
end to every layout flow I've encountered.

>
>
>>
>>>
>>> The issue isn't, is geda or kicad technologically competitive
>>> tools, the
>>> issue is can users move designs back and forth from the established
>>> eda
>>> tools and the free tools?
>>>
>>> If you answer yes then you reduce the risk of the users if you
>>> answer no
>>> then the safe action of the users is to stick with the tools that  
>>> they
>>> know.
>>>
>>
>> I think it's silly to think gEDA can go after the users who are
>> locked in to the big tools. gEDA's natural users are those who are
>> locked out by the high prices. Students, startups, part timers, ...
>>
>> If we give people a tool that gives them the leverage to do big jobs
>> with small resources, the ones with small resources will adopt it,
>> they'll thrive, and gEDA will ride to success on their coattails.
>>
>
> sure for isolated developers but it is far harder to work with larger
> organizations that want your files in the dominant eda file formats.

I export netlists to a variety of customers who are using a variety  
of layout tools. gEDA is a champion at this. My customers are looking  
for big results on small budgets: I told one what it would cost for  
me to get a license for the big tool they liked, offered to use it  
(but they'd have to pay) and they declined to spend the extra $$. And  
they learned to use gEDA.

>
> Would open office be as big a player if it couldn't handle doc and xls
> files?
>

Different game. The big tools can't even interoperate with each  
other: ever try to exchange a design with EDIF (shudder)?

John Doty              Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
http://www.noqsi.com/
jpd@xxxxxxxxx




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