Altium Designer 12 Announcement

[EEVblog]

http://www.altium.com/company/media/releases/2012/en/altium-announces-altium-designer-12.cfm

*yawn*
It's just the same old AD10 relabelled AD12 
Nothing new to see here, move along now...

Dave.

[Rufus]

"16 product updates within the last 12 months, all of which refined and extended the already powerful capabilities of Altium Designer."

Heh, as I recall 3 of them did a bit and the other 13 fixed bugs.

"Users of older version will benefit from special upgrade pricing". Wonder what that will be, more than a double subscription which is what I believe it currently takes to get back on the subscription wagon?

[Randall W. Lott]

They want you to feel like "12" is more worthy of the obnoxious price.

[Rufus]

They want you to feel like "12" is more worthy of the obnoxious price.

The price isn't obnoxious it is reasonably cheap.

The price of subscription is questionable because what you know you get for it is pretty much worthless and what else you might get is unknown. The only thing the announcement implied they are working on is more of the worthless stuff.

[Randall W. Lott]

They want you to feel like "12" is more worthy of the obnoxious price.

The price isn't obnoxious it is reasonably cheap.

The price of subscription is questionable because what you know you get for it is pretty much worthless and what else you might get is unknown. The only thing the announcement implied they are working on is more of the worthless stuff.

Yes; the subscription is what I was referring to.  A one time cost would be perfectly appropriate in my opinion.

[EEVblog]

Yes; the subscription is what I was referring to.  A one time cost would be perfectly appropriate in my opinion.

You can still buy the one-time license, it's called a "perpetual" license.
With that you can use the software you bought, forever.
However, the catch is you don't get any bug fixes or updates, unless you are on paid subscription. So you are suck with whatever version you bought at the time, and that can a hit and miss thing as to which releases are stable, and which ones have major issues.

Dave.

[slateraptor]

Where the hell did 11 go?? The software world and their asshat marketing gimmicks never cease to amaze me.

For the record, I'm still using Summer 09 thanks to the ridiculous slew of quirks in 10.

[Rufus]

Where the hell did 11 go??

It finished on 31st December. I am slightly surprised they haven't gone back to sequential numbering again to pretend they are Microsoft and Windows, but perhaps they have been too busy pretending to be apple and iTunes to notice.

[free_electron]

if your subscription is current you will get it automatically. Great ! Best 1500$ spent a year.

[EEVblog]

Where the hell did 11 go?? The software world and their asshat marketing gimmicks never cease to amaze me.

For the record, I'm still using Summer 09 thanks to the ridiculous slew of quirks in 10.

Altium have had more changes in version number direction and release schedules than you can poke a stick at.

It used to be 2.X, and then it was a yearly system so you got 99/99SE, and then it was 2004 with the DXP tacked on.
I started there when it went back to version 6.X, with major releases "whenever they were ready", and everyone was happy happy with that system, no complaints, it worked well.
Then they tried the ridiculous Summer/Winter thing and started and the 6 monthly release cycle. Even the employees couldn't remember which version was which (was Summer 09 before or after Winter 09?), and each release was rushed to market to meet the 6 monthly promise, and had to be patched many times to get a stable version.
They got sick of that eventually and then went back to versioning, but instead of being "Version 10" it was "Release 10", or R10, which was so famously late the running joke was the latest ship date didn't specify a year. And then the whole campaign to get everyone onto maintenance with the new patching system that allowed frequent updates from "the cloud", and no more concept of "major releases".
The problem with that approach is that it locks you into the "R10" name forever, and well, ain't ain't that good for marketing... so now we finally get (as everyone guessed) a change to "Release 12" where it's actually not a major release, just a name change to make it look fresh.

And I probably missed a few changes in there too.

It's all just bat-shit crazy. I don't understand, they have the easiest job in the business. They have one (generally excellent) product, a loyal customer base that uses it for one thing (PCB/SCH), and the world at their feet. All they have to do is improve the core product and come out with a new major release every year or two. They could have used the same model for 20+ years and it would have worked. But for some reason they feel the compulsive need to chop and change all the time and chase imaginary markets. None of it has ever gotten them anywhere.
I know that's boring, but what's wrong with just sticking to winning formula and being the world's #1 PCB/SCH CAD company and being filthy rich?

Dave.

[Randall W. Lott]

I only use the schematic and PCB editors, so many of what I would pay for is not worth my investment.  I'll stay with the 09' version that I bought until they have an option to get only what I need, which may be never.  My release seems fairly stable, thankfully.

[robrenz]

My Experience with subscription software in general is Solidworks, generally considered one of the top CAD programs.  I pay approximately $1400 a year for subscription support.  That support includes all your typical stuff, new versions, service packs, and technical support from my local VAR. I can call and talk to a real expert about my simple or complex problem and they will have an answer. If necessary they will connect to my system and look at my problem and walk through it. Each year a new version comes out with new features that are based on customer input. There are several service packs available through the year also for bug fixes. SW2012 has over 200 substantial and usefulluser driven features, not bug fixes. So it seems to me based on what You guys are saying Altiums past update performance has been, Altium subscription should be about $19.99 a Year

[Rufus]

It's all just bat-shit crazy.

Another bat-shit crazy thing I never understood was the expensive retail packaging they used. Like the majority I never got to see it till after I bought it and mostly thought why did they waste some of my money on this fancy printed cardboard construction I am going to throw away.

Seems to be another case of them thinking they are (or wanting to be) a different business, a business which needs to compete with other boxes on retail shelves. 

[firewalker]

Maybe those minor releases is an antipiracy measure. Does Altium use their own way to protect their product against copying? If they are using a thirds companies software for this could explain some things.

Alexander.