Why I don't like LinuxCAD

Why I don't like LinuxCAD.

Here is an example of how the people from SoftwareForge have tried to discredit Robert Wuest's review of their software by quoting from it selectively and ignoring Robert's genuine complaints about their software.

A number of people have replied to SoftwareForge's attempts to smear Robert Wuest and some are displayed below.

I pulled these Usenet posts off Dejanews on October 10th, 1998. It should still be possible to find these posts there.

Author: Sforge Inc.
Email: linuxcad@mw.idsonline.com
Date: 1998/10/07
Forums: alt.os.linux, comp.os.linux.advocacy, comp.os.linux.powerpc 

http://www.linuxcad.com   -  to learn about CAD program for Linux,
                                by the way a $99 full featured CAD


    "I now must get NT working first thing Monday morning. I still don't
have a cad package to do my work in Linux"

    R. Wuest ( whoever that is )

   That is his point  "Back to NT".   He wants you back to NT !!!


  The review is a lie. Paid for or organized by ... who knows whom?


  And these are the words of another customer:

  "LinuxCAD appears easier to use then VariCAD because its similarity to AutoCAD.
 We need more developers like you"

 Dave Rector , UCSD

  Or yet another one:

   "Thank you for developing CAD program for Linux!"


  It is amazing how easily can some individual trash a good software by
means of his review.

  If you people would like to stay fooled. We can not help it.
 =============================================================


 Lukily still we managing to find some customers and heavily using
program

 internally in our shop too.

  Our extensive market analysis has shown - THERE NO CAD SYSTEM FOR
LINUX ON THE MARKET TOODAY THAT CAN MATCH LINUXCAD 

IN      PERFORMANCE / PRICE     RATIO !!!
 

   The LinuxCAD web page designed with objective to give all information
that you need

to make a right decision to buy the program. It is important to see all
screen samples on

the page before making the decision.

<Standard LinuxCAD advertisement snipped>

Re: Excerpt from LinuxCAD review. 
Author: Christopher B. Browne
Email: cbbrowne # news.brownes.org
Date: 1998/09/21
Forums: alt.os.linux 

On Sun, 20 Sep 1998 03:11:02 -0500, Sforge Inc.  posted:
>http://www.linuxcad.com   -  to learn about CAD program for Linux,
>                                by the way a $99 full featured CAD
>
>    "I now must get NT working first thing Monday morning. I still don't
>have a cad package to do my work in Linux"
>
>    R. Wuest ( whoever that is )
>
>   That is his point  "Back to NT".   He wants you back to NT !!!

That is is a dishonest misquote of the following:

"I now must get NT working first thing Monday morning. I still don't
have a cad package to do my work in Linux and then take it to acad to
make a final drawing. I'm still stuck using microsoft. :-( "

That final sentence, the final sentence of the article, indicates quite
clearly that Wuest is unhappy to feel "stuck" with Microsoft-based
products.

>  The review is tendentious lie. Paid for or organized by ... who knows
> whom?

Evidently by someone that can spell considerably better than the
promoters of LinuxCAD.

I'm afraid I don't know what a "tendentious lie" is; the word
"tendentious" doesn't occur in my dictionary.

Possibly you meant the word "mendacious," but that would be redundant
in the context of what you wrote.

>  And these are the words of another customer:
>
>  "LinuxCAD appears easier to use then VariCAD because its similarity to
>  AutoCAD.
>  We need more developers like you"
>
> Dave Rector , UCSD

That "quote" sounds about as grammatically correct as most of the material
coming from the LinuxCAD developers.  Leading me to be suspicious that it
may be about as valid as the quality of the spell checking in use by
LinuxCAD developers.

>  Or yet another one:
>
>   "Thank you for developing CAD program for Linux!"

Again, someone who clearly doesn't use grammatically correct English.

Most press releases have spelling verified before they go out.

It is not normally appropriate to do "spelling criticisms" in Usenet
discussions; this is somewhat different as it is not a "discussion,"
per se, but rather a representation by a company of their product.

If you can't make public statements when representing your company that
have at least been run through a spell checker, why should anybody trust
any other claims of quality?

>  It is amazing how easily can some individual trash a good software by
> means of his review.
>
>  If you people would like to stay fooled. We can not help it.
> =============================================================

Evidently not.

> Lukily still we managing to find some customers and heavily using
> program internally in our shop too.

If your internal people *weren't* using it, that would be a far worse
sign than anything else that's conceivable.

>   The LinuxCAD web page designed with objective to give all information
> that you need
> to make a right decision to buy the program. It is important to see all
> screen samples on
> the page before making the decision.
>
>
>  http://www.linuxcad.com

"All information" should include a list of satisfied customers that
can be independently contacted as references.

I have used such references and been used as a reference...

It's pretty clear from the reviews that I have seen that those people
that have used LinuxCAD that have been available to provide independent
review information have not been real happy with it.

If there are so many people that are happy with it, one or another
should get directed to an independent news source to indicate a more
positive review to establish the incorrectness of the Linux Gazette
review.  If there are lots of happy users, no doubt they should be
clamouring to provide useful details to encourage people to use the
"wonderful" software.

Good software in the Linux world doesn't need much advertising; happy
users are by far the best kind of advertising...

-- 
Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.  
-- Henry Spencer          
cbbrowne # hex.net - "What have you contributed to Linux today?..."

Re: About LinuxCAD review 
Author: David M. Cook
Email: davecook # home.com
Date: 1998/10/08
Forums: alt.os.linux, comp.os.linux.advocacy, comp.os.linux.powerpc 

On Wed, 07 Oct 1998 21:02:49 -0500, Sforge Inc. 
wrote:

>  The review is a lie. Paid for or organized by ... who knows whom?

This kind of smear by innuendo is completely unacceptable even when it comes
from snot nosed 10-year olds let alone from a commercial organization.  

I would suggest you apologize to Mr. Wuest, but since this is the second
time you've posted exactly the same smear it's apparent you have neither
shame nor ethical standards.  That you must resort to these kinds of low
tactics says a great deal about the quality of your products.

What's really unfortunate is that this kind of behavior is coming from an
organization with Linux in their title.

Dave Cook