[KLUG Members] Re: File type DXF? -- *RANT*

[Bryan-TheBS-Smith]

[ TheBS' goes on a MEGA-RANT ;-PPP ]

John Bridleman wrote:
> It's an AutoCad format. ASCII Drawing Interchange Files.
> - http://www.cica.indiana.edu/graphics/object_specs/DXF.format.txt

No company is more like Microsoft than Autodollar--er, Autodesk:

                         M$ Apps      Autodollar
                         ----------   ----------

"Open" format:           RTF          DXF

Extremely limited, fixed standard is not used by company itself

"Release" schedule:      1-2 year     1-2 year

New versions are released every 1-2 years with extremely small
improvements.  Usually releases feature new "innovations" that are not
in subsequent releases because they are useless, or superceded by
better, more useless ones (e.g., "Clippy" ;-)

Backward compatibility:  1 rev        1 rev

And not perfect either.  Data loss is near absolute when talking more
than a few revisions back, cannot save to older formats either.  When
combined with the above 2, designed to keep a "moving target" in file
format compatibility that others cannot hit.

Flagship product Cost:   $500-1,000   $3,000-5,000

Very expensive versus equivalent software.  Can maintain price because
competitor software cannot deal with above 3 adequately.

"Light version"          Works        LT

Designed to get entry-level users into their products, but are purposely
*IN*compatible with flagship products in many areas.  This is designed
to get them to buy the full version, increasing marketshare.

Piracy stance:           Encouraged   Encouraged

Both Microsoft and Autodesk have long-established revenue models of
letting known piracy happen and then coming in and fining the companies
heavily.  They regularly send blind audits to companies and treat them
guilty until proven innocent.  I don't believe in piracy, but nothing is
more immortal than Balmer's "if people are going to piracy software, we
hope it is our software" quote.

"Niche/Limited" usage:   Yes          Yes

Both Microsoft and Autodesk products are *NOT* good for "everything."  I
get sick and tired of hearing people say "Office is the standard" or
"AutoCAD is the standard."  They are _so_limited_ in their capabilities,
but people don't realize it.

Word can *NOT* be used for publication and Microsoft Access is one
bastard of a database that probably accounts for more IT waste than
anything I can think of.  AutoCAD is not something well-used outside of
civil/environmental engineering, and has a Microsoft-like "partner"
amtosphere that 3rd parties cannot break into.  For publication, word
processors suck and give way to desktop publishing (DTP) and typeset,
and Excel and Access are "identity crisis" apps as neither do
single-user data management well compared to _real_ spreadsheets and
multi-user databases.  For mechanical and electrical engineering, Pro/E
and Intergraph are much better and interface with numerous engineering
analysis and other government-developed engineering software much
better.


So, who's at fault for this?  THE USER!  WE CHOOSE THE APPS!
But that is another story.  ;-PPP

-- TheBS

-- 
Bryan "TheBS" Smith    mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org   chat:thebs413
Engineer  AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.  http://www.linux-wlan.org
President     SmithConcepts, Inc.   http://www.SmithConcepts.com
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