kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Javier Serrano <javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 4:05 PM, Dick Hollenbeck <dick@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
> I do see value in it.  Only you can say if that value makes it worth your
> time.  Folks
> encountering KiCad for the first time often will install from the repo.
>  Only later will
> they yearn for the new goodies, which can be obtained only by building
> from recent source.
>
> A daily PPA like system is therefore more valuable, since it has potential
> to address the
> needs of both the new user as well as the seasoned one.
>

I agree with this assessment today. The added value you get by building
from recent sources is huge because the project is in a phase of massive
development. However, one would hope :) that with time more and more of the
features one actually needs to design simple and complex PCBs efficiently
are there, working flawlessly and with a clean and modular code base. At
that point, the added value of building from recent sources should
decrease, at least for most users. OTOH, there will always be a (big I
think) set of potential users who will only use KiCad if installing it is
very simple, as in "I click here and it just works". I think having Ubuntu
and Debian packages in the official package repositories will be very
important then, to get (many) more users, which will then result in all
sorts of Good Things, including a better KiCad. BTW, I consider easy
installation on Windows and Mac very important for the same reasons, and I
take the opportunity to thank all those who are working on this side of
things. It's not easy and it can be quite unrewarding.

Cheers,

Javier