but I had to search on https://kicad.org/ to find a reference to it in one of the blog posts. I am of opinion that the availability of paid support being availabe is a worthy addition to KiCad. I was surprised that this info was so hard to find on the KiCad site, and would have expected a direct link to https://www.kipro-pcb.com/ on https://www.kicad.org/help/
The availiabily of subsription based or monthy fees for support will probably give a lot of complanies more confidence in the quality of KiCad. It also invites companies to think about what they can get from KiCad in comparison for the price of a commercial PCB program.
Is this done on purpose to avoid any cross contamination between the Open Source of KiCad and a commercial company, or has this just not given much thought add to the KiCad Website?
Is KiCad already mature enough for this image, or maybe wait untill V6?
Personally I simply refuse to use any program that is not Open Source, and try to contribute.
Apparently there are still lots of people who are afraid using Open Source software or do not consider it a viable option.
What more can we do to offset the advertisement budgets of the commercial companies?
eh I think it’s a toss up whether the look is good or bad for kicad.
personally I prefer open source projects without commercial pretensions - you could imagine perverse incentives when a project’s lead developers make their money selling support and bug fixes…
Redhat and Suse are pretty big companies, and there are more commercial companies that sell maintenance contracts for open source software.
Whether any of them should be named on the main site of an Open Source project is indeed another question…
yeah nothing wrong with selling support/development. but usually when you have big corps getting involved there’s a non-profit foundation established to manage the development process, or a non-associated BDFL.
I lean towards good. I think there is a certain evolution that happens. This type of product benefits commercial interests so getting their financial input is acceptable and useful. A robust solution for things like plug ins and keeping the text format for files is a buffer against too wide a perversion of the program’s general open source direction.
Usual remarks about the Linux kernel and corporate involvement.
I don’t think you’ll find the commercial link while CERN holds the reigns. This is probably another factor in favor of not perverting the open source nature too badly.
I’ll leave comments about KiCad Services to Seth/Wayne, but I just wanted to say that I think this is a weird sentiment (CERN holding reigns) – CERN supports the development of KiCad in several ways, but KiCad is not owned or controlled by CERN.
(Full disclosure, I am on the lead dev team, and am not associated with either CERN or KSC)
Hi Folks! I’ll post here in the interests of openness.
Wayne and I have discussed this and we decided to add a link somewhere as an additional resource. However, it was lower on the to-do list than the features we have both been working on and we didn’t get to it yet.
This does not pervert, change or damage the Open Source nature of KiCad. Quite the opposite. It facilitates the continued open source development. Every company that purchases support contract is also support your use of KiCad (and ability to see/use the source code) by funding future development.
This aligns with CERN’s mission of science in the public interest, which is one of the reasons that they contribute resources to the KiCad project. T
What KSC does not do and will never do is close off a section of the KiCad codebase. That would be antithetical to our goals for KiCad and probably illegal under the license.
If anyone has questions about KSC, please feel free to post them here (if you’d like an open discussion) or e-mail me directly (seth@kipro-pcb.com). Dear moderators: do not remove my e-mail address from this post. It is added intentionally and knowing all risks associated with the action.
I think that a link to KSC would both benefit KSC and KiCad as a whole.
People who run a company and have money to spend are more likely to be interested in KiCad if they can get “real” support.
KSC can probably get more customers, because I suspect the kicad.org is visited by many more people then KSC (Guessing here).
I’m just a regular user trying to contribute, but with limited ability to focus. (Different story). KSC is (I believe) a pretty new company, and it seems logical you’re still focussing on other aspects.
An open place such as this for pro / con arguments seems applicable for an Open Source project as KiCad.
I guess I misunderstood CERN’s involvement. My main thinking was that if they do? provide the resources for the website they might nix that kind of link.
Hah. If Microchip can take the GCC compiler which is GPL, add their “optimizations”, disable all optimization levels that are standard in GCC unless you pay and only release the source minus their changes. I’m sure you can manage (I’m only kidding about you doing it, Microchip totally does :D)
I can throw in a link like this (baring some sizing futzery needed) Things like this do unfortunately have to be a bit more front and center to let users find it on more immediate glances. Especially when trying to sell it to “companies” that would pay for said commercial support.
Submit a pull-request to the kicad website repository as long as you meet the following conditions:
Your site must be open and cannot charge for access
You do not misrepresent yourself as being an official KiCad entity
There is a primary focus on KiCad content. i.e. your personal blog that has some KiCad related posts is not valid, a forum dedicated to KiCad or a blog only with kicad posts does
You accept your site can be removed from listing at any time at the discretion of the KiCad website maintainers
(I’m only kidding about you doing it, Microchip totally does :D)