[ BTW, wasn't Mr. Arnold a former Autodesk employee? ]
No, he was a civil engineer who started developing AutoCAD extensions for
his own use. His civil engineering firm evolved into DCA software, changed
its name to Softdesk, then was sold to Autodesk. David joined Autodesk as
part of the deal.
>>But what really killed Autodesk's sales of _all_ non-Win32 versions was
when Microsoft gets a stake in something. Until then, you could still
purchase non-Win32 versions. At least the Mac version.
Once they started to change the code base, they fully committed to Win32.
You could still buy the Unix and Mac versions for years. It wasn't a
'Microsoft Thing'.
>>I know several of the distributors, it's not because of lack of sales.
Sorry, but it was. I saw the actual numbers and both Unix and Mac were a
drop in the bucket. They did consider porting the new core, but the cost
outweighed the income by far. Considering how badly they screwed it up,
they didn't have the time or resources. Besides, Unix workstations were
high priced in those days (>$10K typical), and customer wanted NT-based PCs
for the lower cost. I agree that MS has done some arm twisting, but the
business case was clearly there.
Ken Elliott
=====================
-----Original Message-----
From: slug@nks.net [mailto:slug@nks.net] On Behalf Of Bryan J. Smith
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2004 1:11 PM
To: slug@nks.net
Subject: RE: [SLUG] Re: AutoCAD Clone for Linux - IntelliCAD now in beta
On Sun, 2004-11-28 at 12:19, Ken Elliott wrote:
> Not exactly.
There are other details, I know. For brievity, I did not go into
everything. Thank you for doing so.
> David C. Arnold, CEO of Softdesk,
I think I overstated something, thank you for correcting.
[ BTW, wasn't Mr. Arnold a former Autodesk employee? ]
It was to my understanding that Softdesk was an Autodesk partner and
reseller. But 3 (?) Autodesk developers defected to Softdesk who realized
they could make far more money. Without NDAs, they were free to develop a
clone.
I sure wish I could find the interview from years back. It talked about how
they were able to develop such a compatible DWG program, especially since
they were former Autodesk employees. The lack of a NDA was the
reason.**
> decided he needed an alternative to AutoCAD and started a secret
> project to build an AutoCAD clone, thus cutting out Autodesk.
> Autodesk tried to purchase Softdesk and kill the project. But the FTC
> stepped in and wouldn't allow the Softdesk sale to take place unless
> Autodesk sold IntelliCAD.
Correct.
And it when to another party before Visio bought them, then Microsoft.
> Autodesk committed to Win32 and VBA before the IntelliCAD project had
> started. They needed to completely rewrite the core, which was
> started in Release 13, and completed in AutoCAD 2000. Faced with such
> small revenue from Mac and Unix sales, and growing interest in NT
> workstations, Autodesk committed to Win32 for the rewrite.
Yes, there was collaboration going on between Microsoft and Autodesk before
IntelliCAD. The Win32/VBA angle was being explored in development. As you
pointed out, a lot of the UNIX guys had left.**
But what really killed Autodesk's sales of _all_ non-Win32 versions was when
Microsoft gets a stake in something. Until then, you could still purchase
non-Win32 versions. At least the Mac version.
Because that's the first thing that happens when Microsoft gains a foothold.
Anything non-Win32 goes. It's why Best Buy stopped selling anything Mac
several years ago once Microsoft gained a minority stake.
I know several of the distributors, it's not because of lack of sales.
> AutoLisp was never dumped and still exists in AutoCAD 2005.
I meant "dumped at the primary script."
-- Bryan
**NOTE: Were not some of the former Autodesk developers who came over to
IntelliCAD the same ones that were with the company early on and did not
have a NDA? Again, I need to find that old interview.
-- Bryan J. Smith b.j.smith@ieee.org -------------------------------------------------------------------- Subtotal Cost of Ownership (SCO) for Windows being less than Linux Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) assumes experts for the former, costly retraining for the latter, omitted "software assurance" costs in compatible desktop OS/apps for the former, no free/legacy reuse for latter, and no basic security, patch or downtime comparison at all.----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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