

KiCad videos released - ChrisGammell
http://contextualelectronics.com/kicad-information-wants-to-be-free/

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decktech
You know what it would be nice for KiCad to release? Binaries.

I've gotten into several discussions with KiCad users, but it always comes
down to me saying "This is marketed as cross-platform, how do I install it on
Mac OS?" "Oh I don't know, I just apt-get it."

Well, great. I'm glad EAGLE's got some competition on the Linux side, but
seriously, how do I install KiCad on the Mac? The Mac link on the KiCad site,
which you would assume would take you to a binary, instead drops you on a
github project for a build script that hasn't been updated in six months. This
is the point at which my electrical engineer friends give up. The script
requires you to manually install a bunch of dependancies, and upload an SSH
key to Launchpad.

Ok, well, can I use Homebrew? No, KiCad doesn't release stable versions
either, and brew won't accept HEAD-only recipes or whatever they call them.

So, I'm a little at a loss. I'm an actual EE, and I love the /idea/ of KiCad,
and I'd love to actually try it, but it seems like you need to be a software
engineer just to install this electrical engineering tool. This makes the
barrier to entry unacceptably high, and I think works against what they're
aiming for. KiCad already has a terrible reputation - every conversation I
have about it with KiCad users is along the line of "It's much better now,"
"It doesn't crash nearly as much," "CERN has a guy working on it full time!" I
think they're really shooting themselves in the foot here by not even
releasing stable versions. Anyone know what's up with the project?

~~~
mng2
I guess I'm one of those people who tells my friends that KiCAD is "much
better now". Bear in mind that this is a comparison to oh, five years ago,
when it would crash roughly as often as OrCAD... EEs are accustomed to buggy
tools that crash at inopportune moments, so to be clear, I think KiCAD is
doing quite well.

I do stick to using it on Windows though. If the situation on the Mac is as
bad as you say, perhaps they should drop their OSX claim until that gets
fixed.

~~~
decktech
Even the link to the Windows version drops you in a folder on some random
French server[1]. This looks like an exe that some random person built over a
year ago. They should consider dropping _all_ mentions of cross-platform
compatibility until they're ready to release cross-platform software.

[1] [http://iut-tice.ujf-grenoble.fr/cao/](http://iut-tice.ujf-
grenoble.fr/cao/)

~~~
mng2
I don't know what you're expecting (nightlies?) but KiCAD is a slow-moving
project. Take a look at the old builds folder to get a rough idea of the
interval between releases.

And that's not a random French server. KiCAD was originally started by a
French researcher, and that's the site it's been distributed from for a long
time. Only in the last few years has development shifted to a different
location, but we haven't seen a whole lot of outward improvement.

I don't want to sounds like a fanboy; KiCAD clearly needs a lot of work on
multiple fronts. But I've used it for moderately complex 2-6 layer projects
and it's performed well enough for my purposes. If it's the Free Software
angle you're interested in, there's always gEDA (which I have not used
extensively).

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dispense
I cannot read the article or watch the video without enabling Javascript.

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CamperBob2
So enable Javascript.

