In an interview with Heather Clancy of CRN, Autodesk COO Carl Bass says, " Amongst our design [CAD] customers, almost no demand for Linux. It's not interesting to them."
As for future acquisitions, expect them to support 3D CAD: "So, there are gaps in our ability to visualize, analyze, simulate some of those things. You'll continue, probably, to see us do small technology acquisitions."
I think the reason why Carl Bass says there's "almost no demand for Linux" is because no one asked. Those of us who have played/worked with Linux knows it could be a compelling platform for AutoCAD and its verticals. However, because AutoCAD is also very tightly wound to the Windows OS it probably would be a tough and costly port to implement and tune for performance to any OS. Not to mention the added costs to Adesk of supporting more than one OS.
But that doesn't mean it should not be done. Many of us feel trapped in the Windows world forever _because_ of Autodesk. I for one would dump Windows like a rock if ADT were available for Linux.
Heck, I would seriously consider buying a Mac if it ran on OS X.
Well, maybe :)
Posted by: Matt Stachoni | Mar 27, 2006 at 08:11 PM
Interesting interview. I agree with Matt though about Linux. I don't expect there to be an overwhelming demand for it, but at least sum
Posted by: CAD Drawing | Dec 31, 2009 at 06:13 AM