List of alternatives approaches to CNC #24
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It is probably worth mentioning Acorn CNC
https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_diy/acorn_cnc_controller.html
It appears to be popular and as an integrated package of hardware and software is presumably very easy to get going.
Also, Fusion360 includes very good CAM as well as CAD.
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I think it's a good idea to have a list of other CAD/CAM/machine-control software. I don't care at all for closed source software, but I know other people do, so I will not oppose including that here, though I would like to see it called out as such and sorted to the end of the list, or placed in a separate sub-section. I'm always a bit confused about what kind of information belongs on our website, vs in the docs, vs on the wiki (eg http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Cam, http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?List_Of_CAM_References, and more). The website is good because it's "front and center" and easy to find. But IMO it should be small and focused, and primarily a place to quickly find the most important info & links, primarily for newcomers. The docs are good because they're maintained more explicitly, and are well suited for longer, more detailed information. (And they may be translated in the near-ish future!) But there's a lot of docs, of varying quality, and it can be hard to find what you're looking for. The wiki is good because the barrier to entry is very low, so we get a lot of contributions from casual contributors. But it's a disorganized, out-of-date mess, and it's impossible to find anything. So maybe i've talked myself into thinking this information belongs in a document, not on the website. Perhaps a new section in the About LinuxCNC document? Something like "LinuxCNC in comparison to other software"? Maybe that'd also be a good place for the diagram that @smoe suggested in #20? |
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Maybe that list should indeed be turned into a figure. We would just need to cut this down to the most prominent three of each category or so. I was not aware of that Wiki page, could indeed go and augment that. I very much agree with @SebKuzminsky that the LinuxCNC web presentation should not be a registry that demands extra maintenance. |
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One last thought. I am convinced that the explicit pointer to alternatives to LinuxCNC renders it more obvious to all those contributing to LinuxCNC-derivatives (see also #23) that we stand together. |
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I had rather forgotten about this. |
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I have forgotten about this, too :) Let me update this with your comment and to reflect a bit more on what I have learned in the meantime. I am with @SebKuzminsky that I have no interest in closed source solutions - but I want LinuxCNC to just be better and chosen for that reason. And delta that the closed source solutions are ahead of us we should identify and discuss/eliminate. |
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I am still not ultimately confident that this should appear on our home page. I would like to try, though, and we can possibly still move it from the website to the wiki if that page makes too much trouble? |
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Fusion 360 is Windows and Mac. Probably worth mentioning. |
Gave it a try, just that .md table does not show as such in a Github preview. May not be complete enough to be published. |
I am once more not so sure if this a true PR, but these days I just do not know how to discuss this. Anyway, I came up with a list of software/projects that would use LinuxCNC as a backend (say CAD/CAM software) and others that could (almost :o) ) substitute LinuxCNC (other CNC controllers, Free or not).
Personally, I think that this helps to define what LinuxCNC is about. And I like being transparent about alternatives, especially about the other Open Source efforts out there. And finally, I could imagine that this helps the search engines to find our pages.