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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.

  • in reply to asj

    a sj wrote

    ... and coordinate work with company wide IT about 16 hours away.

     

     

    What planet are you on that has at least a 32 hour day?

    --

    Web access to CadSoft support forums at www.eaglecentral.ca.  Where the CadSoft EAGLE community meets.

     

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

      > Well, that's nice. It still doesn't address the primary issue I have

    with v7, which is the new licensing enforcement. This alone is enough to

    make me not consider using v7, even as a free upgrade. I want to make

    sure that CadSoft understands that they are losing my future revenue as

    an Eagle Professional customer due to this change.

     

    Hi Mark,

     

    Point taken, lets see what management decides to do with it.

     

    Best Regards,

    Jorge Garcia

     

     

  • in reply to autodeskguest

    Just a comment on the brain dead removal of prior versions on the Mac. I

    wanted to update that I brought the issue to the attention of our

    developers and we can confirm that the issue is with the software we use

    to package EAGLE for the Mac. We will be updating this software soon, so

    this will no longer be a problem.

     

    Well, that's nice. It still doesn't address the primary issue I have with v7, which is the new licensing enforcement. This alone is enough to make me not consider using v7, even as a free upgrade. I want to make sure that CadSoft understands that they are losing my future revenue as an Eagle Professional customer due to this change.

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

     

    Due to the licensing change in v7, not to mention the brain-dead removal

    of prior versions when installing v7, I will not be upgrading to v7.

     

    Hi Mark,

     

    Just a comment on the brain dead removal of prior versions on the Mac. I

    wanted to update that I brought the issue to the attention of our

    developers and we can confirm that the issue is with the software we use

    to package EAGLE for the Mac. We will be updating this software soon, so

    this will no longer be a problem.

     

    hth,

    Jorge Garcia

     

     

  • I started using Eagle on my Mac in 2010, and purchased Eagle Professional v5 with schematic, layout and autorouter. I use it for hobby purposes, but I use higher-end PCB CAD software at work in my day job, so I just felt too constrained by the limitations of the lower tiers of Eagle.

     

    I then upgraded to Eagle Professional v6 in 2012. As I recall, that was a paid upgrade, and I happily upgraded due to the new features in v6.

     

    Due to the licensing change in v7, not to mention the brain-dead removal of prior versions when installing v7, I will not be upgrading to v7. I'll continue using v6 for the time being, until I find a better alternative. KiCad is starting to look interesting. I clearly don't mind paying for good software, but I will not tolerate intrusive license management. Even if upgrading to v7 was free of charge, I would not upgrade due to its intrusive license management.

     

    Of course, once I become satisfied with another tool, I won't be likely to switch back to Eagle even if they remove the intrusive licensing enforcement in some later version. Switching CAD systems is not a decision to be taken lightly, and it takes strong reasons to force an engineer to change tools. The licensing in v7 is a strong enough reason to cause me to drop Eagle and switch to another tool.

  • I purchased Eagle Pro about 10 years ago after very carefully evaluating all the options - I was already proficient with most of the major CAD packages. I have not regretted the decision - Eagle is a great little CAd package and I have designed hundreds of PCBs with it. However its very success as a great little CAD package is pushing it to transition further away from the hobbiest and educational markets towards the mainstream industrial CAD market and all their associated infrastructure. This is a difficult transition in a competitive market and I don't pretend to understand why they feel this licensing policy is the best approach to meet their goals, but I'm sure they have reasons.

    Unfortunately, this takes Eagle off its position as the #1 most desirable CAD package for users in my market segment.

    Fortunately, I will be able to use version 6 to meet my needs for a few years before I need to make another careful choice.

    As an aside, in this age of technology, where big brother knows your every move, it is easy to figure out how to track software usage without any draconian licensing policies and you don't even need to get involved in policing - every police force now has a software fraud squad.

  • Wow, thanks for this 'news'!

    I used the hobby version just because many friends do/did. For business (very small) I looked at the professional versions, but found for the board area and layers I required Eagle was just too expensive, so even with my Eagle experience decided to opt for DesignSpark PCB which has absolutely no hassle regarding licensing.

    I regularly move my designs between my laptop and desktops according to where I'm working and as the sole user feel this should be acceptable for a single user licence (think this was the old Borland analogy, treat it as a book, read it where you require, but don't copy it?), so now extremely pleased I made the right decision for me and invested the time to learn a new package.

    Although DSPCB has some limitations for my manual layouts (I believe strongly this is the designers responsibility) I find I can achieve good designs efficiently and it is well suited to most users, both hobby and professional.

     

    If I want more features then I'm not sure what software I would progress to, but it certainly will not now be Eagle!

     

    Glad I wandered here to see what new features were incorporated in Eagle........

  • The licensing change is really unfortunate, and means there's no way I can upgrade, even though the features are most interesting.  Reasons:

     

    1. Running a license server means I need to immediately involve IT in the software purchasing decision.  We're a small research group at the far flung edge of the world, without local IT or EngOps. So this means I have to work with "national" IT, and coordinate work with company wide IT about 16 hours away.  For $1000-$2000 of software? They're already busy as it is, and their first question will be: what alternatives are there?

     

    2. The 2 or 3 people using eagle now need VPN access.  We've never needed it before, all our email and voice/video conferring is done without VPN access and provides 99% of the people what they need.  Again, back to IT for assistance.

     

    3. We frequently work at test labs, or remote sites around the world.  Getting VPN access, if at all possible is probably going to be over roaming sim cards via tethered phones.  We either can't pull up schematics anymore, or we're going to be paying huge amounts of money to tether to roaming sim cards.  For what?  Eagle to do a license check? 

     

    Solidworks, IAR, etc all have these problems and they're already a royal pain.  Need to replace the IAR dongle? $500-$750 to replace. Ran into that lovely problem when an airline lost some luggage.  Never again am I going willingly down that route with any company.  To bad too, I've worked with eagle for almost 10 years.

  • I agree that it happened because of purchase of CadSoft. Guys in Farnell believe that forcing stricter licensing policies will bring less pirate action and more revenue. As some of us already said here, pirates will not be affected and will just laugh on rightful people having issues with new version. If people will not be upgrading to 7.0, v.6 will stay the de-facto standard, and pirates will have even easier life...

     

    What can I recommend to Farnell? If you want more revenue, do better sales and marketing job getting new businesses. More customers having more designs. Less sellers on the market selling designs using non-licensed software.

     

    Existing revenue cow can die if abused. Change of business model is possible, but it should be very careful, and responsive. That's basics!

     

    I personally invested my time in supporting EAGLE (see http://kb.gr8bit.ru/KB0015/GR8BIT-KB0015-Best-practices-creating-designs-with-EAGLE.html), and wish it long fruitful life - for CadSoft and its users. Let's hope it will get better, and, anyway, we still have version 6, which works well and satisfies our needs.