Guys, for the love of god, Linux!

[jeffreygough]

I want to pay you money for your software.
I run linux.
I'm not alone.
Please let me give you money! Please!

I've just sunk 5 hours into dicking around with alibre and vmware. I've filled in your bloody free trial form three times, with three different email addresses, I've tried a million different vmware configuration options, I've finally got 3D acceleration to work in XP in vmware, got alibre to run, and it's too bloody slow to use!

It's not a niche OS any more! Probably on a par with Apple!

AARGH! I'm really pissed off!

 

[HaroldL]

This will make your day -

I'll put it to rest There is absolutely no, as in 0%, chance we will ever make AD run natively on Linux. By ever, I mean within the next 15 years.

It sucks, I know, but it that's how it is.

Also, what was the last piece of software you purchased for Linux?

For an extended discussion on Linux follow this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11452&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
You can also search the forum for all the links to "Linux".

 

[Max]

The biggest problem is that it would take a few million dollars and an entire dedicated release cycle to take your money. Unless there are thousands lined up behind you, doesn't make business sense for our company.

 

[jeffreygough]

There ARE thousands lined up behind me! Entire businesses, universities, NGOs and governments are migrating to linux! Doing nothing about linux support is just as stupid as doing nothing about Apple support. But anyway, assuming you're not going to do anything about it, let's at least get you some more money through virtualisation.

It looks like virtualbox might be the answer. Its 3d performance looks better than vmware. I've got Alibre installed in virtualbox, but it's bitching about my licence key seat unlock code free trial whatever.

I've registered god knows how many keys now, and your site appears to have dried up. I've cleared all of my cookies, and I'm using fresh disposable email addresses each time, but I'm not getting any usernames/passwords emailed to me. Why does it have to be this hard to just get a bloody free 14 day trial! It's so flaky that it'll be putting off even the nice friendly compliant windows users you want so much, who are totally happy with flakiness!

Please give me a pile of 14 day licenses I can try with various VM configurations until I get bored of this whole endeavour. Ten or so should suffice. Remember, I'm trying to get you some new customers! You could have a "Getting Alibre to work in a VM" guide up on your site. Zero effort on your part, and would extend your user base to Apple and Linux users. At least the ones with really powerful hardware that can suffer the performance hit and still leave Alibre usable.

Executive rant summary: please give me ten more trial keys, with no admin bullshizzle. I'm donating time to your project.

 

[MikeHenry]

There ARE thousands lined up behind me! Entire businesses, universities, NGOs and governments are migrating to linux!

How many of them are willing to pay $1-2k for this sort of software? Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like most Linux users think that they have a right to free software.

Mike

 

[DavidJ]

Remember that even within Windows, 3D CAD is something of a niche. Alibre being reliant upon DirectX probably has more issues than most in porting to Linux.

If you would like extra trial licences, then discuss that directly with Alibre - little point in ranting here, it does little to help your case.

 

[Max]

Why does it have to be this hard to just get a bloody free 14 day trial! It's so flaky that it'll be putting off

First, you are trying to install on an unsupported operating system. Second, you are technically trying to circumvent the 30 day trial policy by registering multiple accounts. The second one angers the System gods and they try to prevent it. Though your particular case might be a justified use, in no other case is registering multiple trial accounts acceptable. In fact, it is against our EULA and something that, if flagrant enough, we will take additional steps to correct <cough>.

Executive rant summary: please give me ten more trial keys, with no admin bullshizzle. I'm donating time to your project.

Executive reply: It doesn't work like that. We don't have piles of license keys - they are generated based on your system's configuration and hardware. I could send you 200 things that look like license keys but they wouldn't work because they aren't generated from your system.


If you are willing to put in some to being the first person to make this work (many have tried, I think 0 have succeeded) then email me at maxf@alibre.com and I'll see if I can help you, but I doubt it's going to work. While I do not believe this will open our market substantially (given all the hacks and workarounds that are required to make it work) I would suggest that you could write a guide and sell it for $20.

Max

 

[bigseb]

I still believe (as I've stated in the past) that Alibre should release a native-to-linux version.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like most Linux users think that they have a right to free software.

You are wrong. The inherent freeness of Linux software doesn't make Linux users cheapskates. Besides, the Software Centre now also offers proprietry software which must be purchased first. Many of the high-end games are not free for example, neither are CAD packages like Graphite One 3D or VariCAD (not sure at the moment if VariCAD is available in the Software Centre yet though). Linux users are happy to pay for software if its what they want. A browse through the forums (linuxforums, ubuntuforums, etc) will show a very interest in high end CAD software, unfortunately we all forced to dualboot.

I got quite far with running Alibre V12.1 on WINE. It's very, very tricky though. You will need the latest version of WINE and then install your dependencies (J#, directx, etc) via winetricks. I never quite finished experimenting with as I ran out of bandwidth while downloading the dependencies. I think I was still missing directx, I forget as it was a few months back. Nevertheless, I could install, register and start Alibre Design Pro V12.1 and worked ok-ish. For example, Sketches wouldn't show on the sreen, they remained invisible, yet I could dimension them and extrude them!

As I said I never really finished experimenting with it. Work has been hectic the last few months and there's not much time for play...

 

[mshideler]

for the record, jeffery, I hate Windows myself, but with all the useful tools sometime you just have to use it.

That does not mean you don't have a linux box somewhere in the house too.

Think about it - a huge programing cycle time for Alibre or you spend a tiny amount of coin for a Windows OS to run a few specialized applications.

 

[MikeHenry]

You are wrong.

I'll take your word for it then - maybe you frequent a classier part of the web than I do.

 

[tome]

For the record I would pay for a Linux version. I would pay even more for a native MacOS X version. If your development was done well you could have both platforms together. Personally, I think there is a larger Mac base out there than market numbers claim. But what does a mere user know? Of course, AutoCad seemed to think so...Yeah!

FWIW, Alibre works pretty well on Parallels on my MBP (l&g hardware). Certainly having windows7 as a Mac application (as god intended) is not nearly as offensive as the real thing. :wink:

 

[mshideler]

if anyone wants a Mac or Linux version then just pay $2,000,000 for the first copy and then work out a deal with Alibre and maybe they will give you a partial kick-back for each Mac/Linux seat sold. If you get your $2,000,000 back then you were right. If not, then I guess.....oops.

 

[bigseb]

Perhaps we should go door to door selling cookies... :wink:

 

[Max]

if anyone wants a Mac or Linux version then just pay $2,000,000 for the first copy and then work out a deal with Alibre and maybe they will give you a partial kick-back for each Mac/Linux seat sold.

Those terms are acceptable :lol:

 

[bigseb]

Just so you know, at $600 for the Pro version you'd only need to sell 3334 copies to get back your 2 million. Just saying...

8)

 

[mshideler]

I am sure there are that many customers ready on Macs and Linux and Max has already stated that paying the $2,000,000 for the first seat is an acceptable deal.

So it wouldnt take long for the kick backs to kick in

 

[Hop]

The biggest problem is that it would take a few million dollars and an entire dedicated release cycle to take your money. Unless there are thousands lined up behind you, doesn't make business sense for our company.

I know you said "few" here, and later more specifically stated "two," but two million bucks sounds a little light for the work required to port AD to Linux.

If you figure the average programming team member costs about $100K in salary and benefits per year, with some team members costing less (coders) and some a lot more (one or more analysts/designers/software engineers and a program manager), that only buys 20 person years of effort. A project of this magnitude would probably require five years to reach public beta, so we are looking at only four people working full time on it. If the manager also wore analyst and coder hats, maybe it could be done… but at what risk? By the time the project reached public beta, the Windows AD would have progressed through another five years of upgrades. If the Linux team also tried to stay abreast of the Windows development they might never reach public beta.

On the other hand, maybe throwing twenty people at it could get the job done in only a year. Can Alibre form a quality team that is well-integrated and single-minded enough to guarantee the desired results only a year later? They would have to build a fully functional AD running on a Linux distribution that is interchangeable with the same version of AD running on Windows, which probably cannot be done without decimating the existing Windows team.

There may be a simpler alternative to porting AD to Linux: open source software. Go to this URL http://sourceforge.net/search/?q=parametric+3D+CAD and you will find at least seventy-six open-source projects for parametric 3D CAD. I haven’t looked at a single one of them yet because I don’t do Linux. I may never do Linux. For all the young bucks and propeller heads out there who believe Linux is the future of CAD design, jump on a Source-Forge project and ride it to victory. They can always use skilled and dedicated talent at Source-Forge.

By the way, PDF Creator, which Alibre distributes with Alibre Design, was and still is a very successful Source-Forge project. And it runs on Windows too.

Hop

 

[Max]

I know you said "few" here, and later more specifically stated "two," but two million bucks sounds a little light for the work required to port AD to Linux.

If you figure the average programming team member costs about $100K in salary and benefits per year, with some team members costing less (coders) and some a lot more (one or more analysts/designers/software engineers and a program manager), that only buys 20 person years of effort. A project of this magnitude would probably require five years to reach public beta, so we are looking at only four people working full time on it. If the manager also wore analyst and coder hats, maybe it could be done… but at what risk? By the time the project reached public beta, the Windows AD would have progressed through another five years of upgrades. If the Linux team also tried to stay abreast of the Windows development they might never reach public beta.

On the other hand, maybe throwing twenty people at it could get the job done in only a year. Can Alibre form a quality team that is well-integrated and single-minded enough to guarantee the desired results only a year later? They would have to build a fully functional AD running on a Linux distribution that is interchangeable with the same version of AD running on Windows, which probably cannot be done without decimating the existing Windows team.

Don't read too much into it Hop. I could say "10 million" or "500,000" or "2 million" and the only thing they have in common is that none of them will happen. I put about as much time into vetting the 2 million number as it took to type this sentence. All we need to know is that it's a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of headache.

 

[bigseb]

... the only thing they have in common is that none of them will happen...

:cry:

 

[bigseb]

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but for those who are interested checkout VariCAD at http://www.varicad.com/en/home/

I trialed it round about the same time as I trialed Alibre. Ended up choosing Alibre because VariCAD couldn't quite handle the fine detail I need for product design. But for platework and larger structures it was fine. Completely different interface though... I mean completely different. I only bring it up' cos it runs natively on both Windows and Linux. I went through a ton of 3D CAD packages for Linux... some show promise, most were garbage. VariCAD was the only one that was worthwhile, still not as good as Alibre though.

Just for interests sake...