topic Re: Porting ArchiCAD to Linux in Modeling

Porting ArchiCAD to Linux

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 23:40:12 GMT

As head of sales for a Linux based company, Lycoris, I get questions from a large cross section of users. I know that we have several architects that choose to use Desktop/LX because it is simple, clean, effective, and efficient. I've been asked if we have any plans to port architectural software to our platform, as they have to dual-boot to Windows to get their drawing done. The short answer is yes, when we come across the right company.

I have been steered towards this site by a number of people, and ArchiCAD looks like the sort of quality product we'd be interested in porting over. Users don't want to have to pay $200 for XP and $400 for Office when they can pay $40 for our operating system, and $50 for a Microsoft Office compatible suite.

Point me in the right direction and I'd be happy to speak with Graphisoft about getting them to port ArchiCAD over to Linux. The userbase is larger than you might think.

Rus

Re: Porting ArchiCAD to Linux

Djordje — Sat, 15 Nov 2003 17:09:28 GMT

Rus wrote:
Point me in the right direction and I'd be happy to speak with Graphisoft about getting them to port ArchiCAD over to Linux. The userbase is larger than you might think.

Rus,

You should contact the developers at Graphisoft. Your offer is noted.

Re: Porting ArchiCAD to Linux

Ben Odonnell — Sat, 15 Nov 2003 20:23:13 GMT

Mmmmm.
Interesting! May be we can see a port of ArchiCAD to Linux sooner than later?..

Re: Porting ArchiCAD to Linux

stefan — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:27:49 GMT

Rus wrote:
Users don't want to have to pay $200 for XP and $400 for Office when they can pay $40 for our operating system, and $50 for a Microsoft Office compatible suite.

Although it might be cool to have ArchiCAD running on Linux, the cost of an ArchiCAD license (depending on where you are between $4000 & $7000) makes the cost of the OS and the Office suite irrelevant.

I think that Linux being free (well, if you don't buy a box in a store) should not be the main selling point of the OS. To me it makes it look "cheap" and "not reliable". It might be better for the credability of Linux that people stopped argumenting that it is free so therefore better then the Microsoft-solutions.

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On the other hand, we've had a long list of complaints about the behavior of ArchiCAD 8.0 on Mac OSX and a part of these has been directed to the need of supporting multiple OS's. Adding another one (although similar to OS X) won't do much good for this matter.

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If ArchiCAD can be made for Linux, then so be it, but not at the cost of lessening the quality & reliability of the product as it is now for Windows XP/2000 & Mac OSX.

Re: Porting ArchiCAD to Linux

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:12:32 GMT

Slightly related to this topic :

http://www.archilinux.org/

With interesting links to free utilities...

Re: Porting ArchiCAD to Linux

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 17:21:19 GMT

stefan wrote:
Rus wrote:
Users don't want to have to pay $200 for XP and $400 for Office when they can pay $40 for our operating system, and $50 for a Microsoft Office compatible suite.
Although it might be cool to have ArchiCAD running on Linux, the cost of an ArchiCAD license (depending on where you are between $4000 & $7000) makes the cost of the OS and the Office suite irrelevant.

I think that Linux being free (well, if you don't buy a box in a store) should not be the main selling point of the OS. To me it makes it look "cheap" and "not reliable". It might be better for the credability of Linux that people stopped argumenting that it is free so therefore better then the Microsoft-solutions.

---

On the other hand, we've had a long list of complaints about the behavior of ArchiCAD 8.0 on Mac OSX and a part of these has been directed to the need of supporting multiple OS's. Adding another one (although similar to OS X) won't do much good for this matter.

---

If ArchiCAD can be made for Linux, then so be it, but not at the cost of lessening the quality & reliability of the product as it is now for Windows XP/2000 & Mac OSX.

I don't think the "argument" is that the software is free to purchase, but more so that you are free to do with it as you will, most linux OS's start at $40±. Furthermore, what makes the cost of Windows and their products very relevant is the fact that it is very expensive for what they do and very unstable and insecure while doing it. With an open source code apps can be ported to run with more stability as there isn't a concern in regards to protecting industry trade secrets, as there really aren't any.

Personally I'd like to be able to purchase a PC and not have to buy overpriced, underdeveloped MS products for it, not to mention the red tape involved if you purchased the OS separate from the machine and want to replace the machine the OS was originally installed on without having to buy a new OS, I'd like to be able to buy OSX and not have to purchase Apple's hardware. At the moment these options are not available so I believe a port to Linux would give offices more flexibility to work within their budget without always having to sacrifice one thing or another, not to mention add a greater level of stability and security throughout.