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New eagle licensing -> goodbye Eagle

SpacedCowboy

So, I've used Eagle now for over 10 years. In all that time I've always upgraded to the latest version, but that's just stopped.

 

I have multiple computers, and I use multiple locations. I've always only ever used one instance of Eagle at a time, and I've never given the license details to anyone else. Unfortunately, the latest way in which Eagle is licensed is way too restrictive for me to work with the product as I have done for over a decade now.

 

The problem is two-fold:

  • You are only allowed to install on 2 (which is pitiful!) computers if you have a single user license.
  • You cannot use a flexlm-based license for a single-user license.

 

The combination of those two things means I can't duplicate the setup I currently have, so this is the classic example of how proprietary software owners can screw you over without you having any recompense or workaround, despite you being a paying and loyal customer for an extended period of time. I don't consider cracking the software to be an adequate workaround.

 

So, if I'm going to have to spend $$$ in the thousands, I'll take a good look at the competition first, and even at the freebies like kikad. Eagle has major shortcomings anyway - no "bus routing" and the differential pair support is poor at best. I think, with this decision, cadsoft couldn't have done more to help along the freebies, and lose the people who might some day splash the cash and go for the pro option.

 

A primary rule for any software "upgrade" is "don't break the existing workflows". Eagle v7 is completely useless to me, not because of its feature-set, not because of any price issues, but because the management is being pants-on-head moronic about how it goes about licensing. Licensing, of all things.

 

Very disappointed.

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  • I guess v6.6.0 will be my last one as well. I use Eagle on two separate workstations as well as my laptop that I travel with. All of them are single instances, meaning I'm not running them at the same time. However, our machines do go through upgrades/replacements at least once a year (at different intervals) and to have to deal with hostids and what not each and every time, not to mention needing at least two licenses (since it's possible to install one license on two machines), it's just not worth it anymore. This was a bad move on CADSoft/Farnell and I wish them the best in the future. They lost another customer not to mention the many friends I've originally recommended Eagle to who are now also leaving.

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  • I guess v6.6.0 will be my last one as well. I use Eagle on two separate workstations as well as my laptop that I travel with. All of them are single instances, meaning I'm not running them at the same time. However, our machines do go through upgrades/replacements at least once a year (at different intervals) and to have to deal with hostids and what not each and every time, not to mention needing at least two licenses (since it's possible to install one license on two machines), it's just not worth it anymore. This was a bad move on CADSoft/Farnell and I wish them the best in the future. They lost another customer not to mention the many friends I've originally recommended Eagle to who are now also leaving.

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  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    kirash4 wrote:

     

    They lost another customer not to mention the many friends I've originally recommended Eagle too who are now also leaving.

     

    That's a good point. Not only will CadSoft lose my future revenue; there will also be the admittedly small effect that at some point my open-source hardware designs will be developed in some tool other than Eagle. While there's presently only a small handful of people who pay attention to my open hardware due to its niche application, I can imagine that if this licensing change induces other open hardware contributors to switch from Eagle to something else (most likely KiCad), that will have some impact upon which CAD tools new engineers will select based on their experiences with public projects from more experienced designers.

     

    I get the impression that there has been a long rivalry between Eagle and KiCad at the low end of the PCB CAD spectrum. I believe that this change will inevitably tip the scales much more towards KiCad in that area. Perhaps CadSoft/Farnell have decided they don't care so much about the low-end, and want to go after higher end users? That won't fly, though, because Eagle isn't even close to being real competition to products from the like of Mentor, Cadence and Altium. The primary reason I picked Eagle Professional for my personal use vs. Mentor PADS that I use at work, is that I didn't want to use pirated software and PADS is priced way too high for a home user; even one like me who's willing to pay $1,500 for CAD software for hobby use. Oh, yeah, PADS also has obnoxious licensing enforcement that causes all of the expected headaches. But in terms of capability, there's no competition between PADS and Eagle. I wouldn't dream of using Eagle for the types of things I do at work, such as a recent 18-layer PCB with hundreds of multi-GHz impedance-matched diff pair nets.

     

    I strongly feel that this is a foot-shooting move on CadSoft/Farnell's part.