KICAD License or free

[not an email username]

I got a new laptop and went to download Kicad.   It only takes me to a page that wants me to license it.  Is this new.  Is there still a free Kicad?

E

[mariush]

Make sure you go to https://www.kicad.org  - ORG

Then click on the blue DOWNLOAD button in center of the page.

[not an email username]

Download always take me to the commercial site from the ORG page

[mariush]

Windows 64 bit : https://osdn.net/projects/kicad/storage/kicad-6.0.9-x86_64.exe

mac 10.15 or newer : https://osdn.net/projects/kicad/storage/kicad-unified-6.0.9-0.dmg

ubuntu : https://launchpad.net/~kicad/+archive/ubuntu/kicad-6.0-releases  (and notes here: https://www.kicad.org/download/ubuntu/ )


Maybe someone messes up with your DNS ?   

Try setting the DNS temporarily to cloudflare dns (1.1.1.1)  or google dns (8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 ) or OpenDNS ( 208.67.222.222 oe 208.67.220.220 )

[ataradov]

What is the URL of that commercial site?

Latest releases are also available on GitHub https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-source-mirror/releases/

[bdunham7]

Download always take me to the commercial site from the ORG page

Can you copy and paste the page url from your address bar in your browser so we can see what site that is?

[Benta]

Download always take me to the commercial site from the ORG page

Ain't no such thing. Someone's messing with your rowser.

[nali]

For some odd reason some of the Windoes download links e.g. OSDN go to kipro-pcb.com for me - but only while the fundraising drive banner is showing. If I close the banner, links are OK. Thats on Firefox /  Win10.

[Simon]

https://www.kipro-pcb.com/

Yep, this is weird, what is happening? what's the story with this pro thing?

[ataradov]

This is is a consulting business they have. It is legit, just developers trying to make money in a way that does not affect the product at all. And they don't offer any different versions or licenses, they offer paid support and design help.

But I don't see any redirect to it, just the fundraising banner that has their logo. All download links are still where they should be.

[mariush]

Kicad runs a donation drive, and that company Kicad services is matching donations. It says so on the top of the page, this is how it looks in my browser.



The download page looks like the other picture in the list of pictures in the footer (not worth placing it inline).


The windows download page looks like this , and you can see the area of the page where if you click it will go to that site on the ribbon / banner.  Maybe you have a monitor with a very low resolution, with very little vertical space ex 1336x768  or 1280x800, which would make that ribbon / banner go all the way down?
Press F12 to open developer tools, click on the Inspect button (in the corner of that developer tools section), move mouse over the ribbon and then

[Simon]

This is is a consulting business they have. It is legit, just developers trying to make money in a way that does not affect the product at all. And they don't offer any different versions or licenses, they offer paid support and design help.

But I don't see any redirect to it, just the fundraising banner that has their logo. All download links are still where they should be.

no, when the banner for them is up certain links redirect. I don't get it and I find it worrying, is this total incompetence? no you have to want these links to change, so why have they done it, it just looks dodgy as. In principle no nothing wrong with this company but why are we being tricked to land on their site?

[Simon]

Kicad runs a donation drive, and that company Kicad services is matching donations. It says so on the top of the page, this is how it looks in my browser.



The download page looks like the other picture in the list of pictures in the footer (not worth placing it inline).


The windows download page looks like this , and you can see the area of the page where if you click it will go to that site on the ribbon / banner.  Maybe you have a monitor with a very low resolution, with very little vertical space ex 1336x768  or 1280x800, which would make that ribbon / banner go all the way down?
Press F12 to open developer tools, click on the Inspect button (in the corner of that developer tools section), move mouse over the ribbon and then

OK, incompetence, I mean jeez what the fuck is that huge vertical banner about? it's a problem on my 4K monitor!!!

[ataradov]

Yes, it looks like they just have busted layout and that banner is bigger logically than it is visually on the download page.  I don't think it is malice, just an oversight.

They used the same graphic as for the ribbon on the main page, but the ribbon is visually disabled. But the hit box remained big.

It also goes away if you dismiss the whole donation banner.

[Simon]

i hate over use of features like this, it always leads to issues over something that was not needed and looks tacky.

[Benta]

Yes, it looks like they just have busted layout and that banner is bigger logically than it is visually on the download page.  I don't think it is malice, just an oversight.

They used the same graphic as for the ribbon on the main page, but the ribbon is visually disabled. But the hit box remained big.

It also goes away if you dismiss the whole donation banner.

I disagree. It's 100% intentional. I never noticed it, as the Ubuntu page is not affected. But on the Windows download page, all download and other links point to kipro-pcb.

[ataradov]

I don't see that on my end. Windows download page (https://www.kicad.org/download/windows/) the first listed link is https://osdn.net/projects/kicad/storage/kicad-6.0.9-x86_64.exe

Ubuntu page does not provide any direct links, just instructions on how to add PPA repo. But even there if you hover under that banner area, you get a link to the site. But if you close the donation banner, all references to kipro-pcb go away.

[SiliconWizard]

I don't get any kipro link, on Windows here? Using Firefox. The only thing that appears when you click a download link is a a suggestion to donate, on the same page. No redirection and no requirement to do anything.

[ataradov]

It would depend on font sizes and window size/screen resolution. You can see the page layout above. On the windows download page, hover over the "Release" in the "Stable Release" text. This location is likely to be a link to kipro-pcb. But this invisible overlay may extend down a lot, possibly covering links to the downloads. But if you just click on the right side of the blue download boxes, it would be fine.

Ideally this needs to be reported and fixed, but I could not find any obvious contact info.

[SiliconWizard]

Ideally this needs to be reported and fixed, but I could not find any obvious contact info.

Yeah, weirdly enough there is no contact information for the web site itself: https://www.kicad.org/about/contact-us/
(except for the GDPR issues only.) This is odd.

[Benta]

I don't see that on my end. Windows download page (https://www.kicad.org/download/windows/) the first listed link is https://osdn.net/projects/kicad/storage/kicad-6.0.9-x86_64.exe

Try hovering over "64-bit (recommended)" and "6.0.9". Those are direct links to kipro-pcb. Don't tell me that's not intended.

[ataradov]

It is not intended.  There is literally an explanation for why this happens in this thread. This is a shitty web design, but not malice.

The same exact thing happens on all pages of the site that have donation banner, not just windows one.

[SiliconWizard]

It is not intended.  There is literally an explanation for why this happens in this thread. This is a shitty web design, but not malice.

The same exact thing happens on all pages of the site that have donation banner, not just windows one.

Yes the banner just extends down and it has a transparent part that is clickable (I didn't run into it until you mentioned that, due to the fact it just extends down to the "64-bit (recommended)" line in my case, and not further down, and I never click on this line itself, but it was just luck.) I honestly don't know whether it's bad design or intentional. I'd tend to agree about it being just bad design. They probably made the banner container a fixed size rather than resize it automatically according to the banner image. But the net result is that it tricks people, whether it's intentional or not.

[ataradov]

If you look on the main page, you will see that this area is occupied by the blue ribbon that is also clickable. On other pages they made this ribbon invisible (by simply changing the opacity), but it is still there and provides large hit box.

[PlainName]

Might be worth someone's while to pay for KiPro:

Operating Systems
Windows

We support Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.

...

What about 32-bit support?

We support both 32-bit as well as 64-bit systems.

OTOH, doesn't say a lot for their services if they're not even current with the stuff they develop.