Another Reason Linux CAD Hasn’t Caught On

Why are you quoting an English translation of a German product, from a German company (one click on the page you linked to told me that)? Systran does a fairly good job translating but everyone knows that it’s not 100%. What does the German version of the description say?

I have no idea what you are trying to say about Linux CAD here?!?

This is what I think Randall means by this:

If Linux CAD is going to catch on, it has to be much better than Windows CAD, for customers to overcome resistance to making the OS switch, which involves a certain amount of pain. Adding to the pain isn't helpful.

For the record, I am a HUGE fan of Linux and all things Open Source. I converted an old laptop to Linux a few months ago, and it runs like a champ. But the needs of the design/engineering community are very different from the larger IT industry, particularily regarding CAD. The work methods and principles of Open Source are going to have an impact on design/engineering before Linux does. Ralph is right: to succeed, any Linux CAD program will have to be much better than what it replaces. And that includes the documentation and "marketing" materials that support it.

Ralphg and Randall, interesting, I would agree with you on that, I think that is true for any software, not just CAD. And for the record I would never question your support for the Linux and Open Source community.

The only question I have is how did you get there from the original article. Quoting an English translation, especially a computer translation, of German text may be “adding to the pain”, but it is self-inflicted. I am sure if someone used the translator on this conversation it would not make sense to German speaking Linux users either <EG>.

There are many, many, reasons for translating information from one language to another, that go way beyond Docs and “Marketing”. I use them almost every day for many different reasons. But if your argument is that their English “Marketing” materials should be up to par, than, to be fair, I must though it back to you as well. In the original posting did it mention that this was a computer translation (for which it clearly is), nor any of your arguments about open source software, or anything about the lack of proper “English” documentation stated most recent post. It only seemed to say: Look how bad this English is, and this is why Linux CAD has not caught on...That is at least how I interpreted your original article and why I asked for clarification, thank you for your clarification.

My sense is that most "commercial" grade CAD packages have reasonably comprehensible translations on their web pages.

I deal with the vast majority of CAD developers in the world, and I see little interest in Linux-based CAD. I believe this is because developing a serious CAD program is about an order of magnitude more difficult than developing more typical "office" applications. Commercial CAD developers can't afford to do open source, and Linux users don't (generally) want to pay for commercial software.

That being said, I know of a company developing a platform independent CAD program, that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. And, rather interestingly, it runs measurably faster on Linux than on Windows or Mac.