AutoCad Question

[bob]

AutoCad LT is a stripped own version of the full-blown product. In all likelyhood, it won't make a bit of difference to you. The LT versions do not allow you to use lisp files, and if you don't know what a lisp file is, you probably don't need to :) For almost any kind of 2-D drafting, LT2000 is a fantastic tool. I use it on an almost daily basis at work, and it's great for some wood related things too...uh, but only during lunch, of course.... The help file is pretty good, which is more than can be said for most software. As for a printed manual, it should have come with the program, unless......

[David]

What important features are missing from Autosketch, compared to LT?

[Leon]

Autosketch is a good program too. I used it up until version 2.1. Back then 1997 LT would Easily do Isometric drawings by comparison, and real time zoom and pan. Those 3 items in particular gave me the incentive to go to LT. There may be no big differences now.

[Greg D.]

Here's a lesson in the software world... Not because they wrote conditions on a piece of paper and they call it a "license agreement", it means they're legally entitled to enforce those conditions.

If I write on a piece of paper that I will kill you if you don't pay for my services, even if you sign it, it will remain a murder and I will end up in jail regardless the fact I have a contract authorizing me to kill you. When you buy an object, you own the object. Period. You can sell it back if you want as long as you don't keep a copy yourself.

I'm just waiting for the day a software company will come to knock at my door.

No wonder why all the software company are going towards applications delivered on the web. In a near future, you won't need to install anything on your computer, you will just need to "register" through a website to get access to your applications. You will pay a monthly fee based on your usage. This way software will assure themselves of stable revenues and won't fight their own products when it comes to upgrade. Not only that, we will lease applications so software will become a service and not a product anymore.... A big difference legally speaking.

Greg D.

[Jim Giblin]

I had taken a graduate class in internet law that dealt with software copyright et al issue. The software companies have extraordinary exclusions for what would otherwise be normal consumer law and the courts, for what ever reason, have given these companies carte blanche to have you by the short and curlies. Software companies sell the license to use their product and not the product itself. The term of the license can be delivered inside a shrink wrapped box with the CD. That is, what you are buying, the terms of the license, do not have to be 'readable' on the outside of the box. If you break the shrink wrap you are bound by the license and, in most cases, breaking the shrink wrap prevents you from being able to return the product for a refund.

[CW]

You don't work for Autodesk, do you?

[bob]

I think the bottom line is this:

Companies like Autodesk and Adobe know they're not losing much revenue when people copy Autocad and Photoshop, because chances are those people would never buy the product anyway. People and companies who buy software to use for work are their customers.

[C & E]