X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to geda-user-bounces using -f X-Recipient: geda-user AT delorie DOT com X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at neurotica.com X-Original-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=neurotica.com; s=default; t=1697074171; bh=geaTP2X/aUiqjj8B1tVPwvrrjxHQxMc8ZYvXos+iQUU=; h=Date:From:To:From; b=jujVO3B2u2uFvlDGS8NzyIrs4YkcaRL35PdADTrIk/gLEoUuhTSlVPQGYKq1fxWTu EkTcbUrgdFuOCGisCZWJO/ldW/gpbA/Nf1KMrSiCGeh6K7uGncAErcFk7BTFpAgRVj L9mtW90gnr3fT9uIr8E3RXJ8wuJozbYUYFO7tKgM= Message-ID: <97512b73-5c20-b743-1127-1a6c2a5e0061@neurotica.com> Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2023 21:29:31 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/102.13.0 From: "Dave McGuire (mcguire AT neurotica DOT com) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com]" Subject: Re: [geda-user] is geda dead yet? To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com References: <202310100335 DOT 39A3Zn6W3486400 AT envy DOT delorie DOT com> Content-Language: en-US In-Reply-To: <202310100335.39A3Zn6W3486400@envy.delorie.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com Errors-To: nobody AT delorie DOT com X-Mailing-List: geda-user AT delorie DOT com X-Unsubscribes-To: listserv AT delorie DOT com Precedence: bulk On 10/9/23 23:35, DJ Delorie wrote: > No significant commits in years. > > No releases in years. > > Subprojects moving away, or forking. > > Mailing lists are oddly quiet. > > Risks are arising about dependencies on obsolete toolkits. > > Nobody seems interested in maintaining it any more. > > I'm contemplating pulling the plug on the 12 year old server and > calling it a day. > > Anyone want to argue otherwise? ;-) > > (and if you do, you'll likely end up owning it ;) I'm a long-time user and lover of geda and PCB; I've designed hundreds of boards with it over the past 20+ years, both commercially and for personal projects. Geda and PCB are very good programs, capable of real production-quality results, i.e. not some hobbyist toy. And since it's not subject to corporate whim and doesn't involve any Windows BS, it's safe for the long term. But, I have to admit with no small amount of shame, that I moved to KiCad about two years ago. I've designed about 35 boards with it, and it has been great. I feel shame because geda/PCB has been developed by people whom I consider to be friends, and for whom I have great respect, and honestly, I still love the software. I don't like to abandon things (or people) that have been good to me. I moved to KiCad due to the great tool integration, excellent libraries, and excellent feature set. The pace of development is rapid. KiCad was a hobbyist toy, I mean seriously it was a real pile of crap, just a few short years ago. Now it's absolutely fantastic. CERN throwing its money and developers behind KiCad a few years ago really turned it around. It's a shame they didn't adopt geda/PCB instead. I always wondered about that. I still need to keep geda and PCB running in order to access old designs. Sometimes a client will contact me years later and request a variation of an existing design. There's no practical way (none that I've found anyway) to import geda's schematics or PCB's board layouts into KiCad, so I just hope I can keep things running. Between work and running the museum (LSSM), both of which are full-time jobs, I'm just too busy to take on a code maintenance project, as much as I'd like to, and as much as I feel geda/PCB deserve my support in that form. What I can offer, though, is permanent server space for any and all list archives, sources, binaries, etc etc, if that is ever needed. The network I run has been around for a very long time (it predates both Google and Yahoo by many years) and is stable. I do hope someone picks up the long-term maintenance of this code. It's important. Thank you to all who have worked on this over the years. With respect, -Dave McGuire -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA