N. T. wrote:
>> It is about privacy and reliability.
>
> Still, people use Gmail and other web services ...

> Yes, a serious design most probably would not want to go on web, But,

We are telling you how things are, and you are arguing why that's not how
you think they should be.  You are missing the point that it is how it is,
regardless of why you think it should be otherwise.

You are also looking at this from your own very narrow perspective.
Hobbyists don't drive the market.

> the question is, how many less serious would be willing to use it.
> 10000 users paying $20 a month, would, probably justify the cost of
> development and the cost to run it.

Professionals wouldn't go near it for the reasons Michael and others have
already cited.  That leaves hobbyists, which are a very cheap lot on the
whole.  Very very few are going to fork over $240/year to rent access to EE
design software not even on their own computer.

> If you searched web for something
> EE-related and reached the site, why not just to try it for free?

Most EE software already has trial versions and the like you can try for
free.

> Crucial is to make the discover-ability of the PCB design
> functionality as easy and exciting as playing a computer game.

Why?  I don't see why it's "crucial" at all to try to attract those with
short attention spans and need for instant gratification to EE design
software.  Such people invariably make crappy EEs, so letting them weed
themselves out seems like a lot less trouble for everyone.

Also EE software is one of the few things I run that is still limited by my
computing hardware.  The autorouter can take many minutes per pass, and
that's when it's using up 100% of my local CPU running (presumably) well
optimized compiled code.  That's definitely not the kind of thing you want
running in a interpreter, like Java.  Or if you think it should run on a
cloud somewhere, that cloud needs to have some very serious processors,
which means money, which means they would have to charge real money for the
use.  It just doesn't add up.


********************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, http://www.embedinc.com/products
(978) 742-9014.  Gold level PIC consultants since 2000.
--=20
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
.