There once was a time when to make a PCB in our community was to use CadSoft EAGLE, a PCB design package which neatly filled the entry level of that category with a free version for non-commercial designs. Upgrading it to the commercial version was fairly inexpensive, and indeed that was a path which quite a few designers making the step from hobby project to small production would take.
Then back in 2017, CadSoft were bought by Autodesk, and their new version 8 of the software changed its licensing model from purchase to rental. It became a product with a monthly subscription and an online side, and there began an exodus of users for whom pay-to-play meant too much risk of losing access to their designs. Now six years later the end has come, as the software behemoth has announced EAGLE’s final demise after a long and slow decline.
What many EAGLE 7 customers said to Eagle 8 after the move to subscription.
To anyone who has kept up with the development of PCB software over the years, this has probably come as no surprise. Open-source software such as KiCAD has gone from as annoying as fingernails on a chalk board to being surprisingly useful and accessible, so perhaps the time has passed for a commercial package in Eagle’s niche.
But even that analysis misses the point of how Autodesk got it wrong with Eagle, they failed to understand that their paying customer base was made of people for whom even a cheap software licence represented a considerable investment. Owne ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
