Years ago Richard Stallman got it right when he said cloud computing is a trap:
Cloud Computing Is A Trap
Most of the CADCAM press aren't going to do the right thing and hold design CAD companies like Autodesk feet to the fire and call them on the real reason that they want to move all the applications that they offer to the cloud as quickly as possible. The real reason is that it locks in a review stream for design CAD vendors. No more having to worry about customers going off maintenance because if the customer stops paying the monthly fee they can't use the CAD application.
Autodesk CEO: "The only way to use our products will be on-line"
Unfortunately no one in the CADCAM press going to examine the long trail of broken promises design CAD companies have made for years and not delivered on. There is also no chance that most of the SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventor bloggers left will tell the truth about why design CAD companies are pushing their applications to the cloud as fast as possible.
I think others besides myself need to look back to what Buzz Kross had to say when Autodesk exercised their option to purchase the code from Spatial (the ACIS kernel). I don’t feel that Buzz Kross and Autodesk delivered on most of the promises that were made back then for a much more powerful hybrid modeling approach in Inventor. I’m disgusted with the lack of any real progress made by SolidWorks as well. I don’t feel that either company deserves the trust that I feel is needed between end user and cloud provider. Geometry creation and editing isn't a solved problem. It's not even close to being a solved problem. Design CAD companies placing the emphasis on cloud applications just takes away from what I think should be the emphasis / goal of design CAD companies like Autodesk and SolidWorks: Creating a seamless, unified, hybird modeler that's good at solid modeling, surface modeling and working with dumb solid geometry. That takes hard work and design CAD companies are looking for a new way to make a fast buck instead of properly developing their CAD tools.
Easily the most disappointing to me are all the long time, experienced, SolidWorks users who focus all their efforts on commenting on just one blog. If you want change, and you are sincere about getting change, I think it's incredibly stupid to put all you efforts into posting to just one blog. Like most machinists, CADCAM users are wimps who share in the blame for the sad state that CADCAM is currently in.
From personal hands on experience I know that most that I work with, who really push SoildWorks hard, are very unhappy with SolidWorks and I feel they have really good reasons to be extremely unhappy. What’s being said in the comments I link to below reflects my personal experience from many years of using SolidWorks. They also reflect the opinion of the majority of people I work with.
I acknowledge that many people who don’t really push SolidWorks, or who only use SolidWorks occasionally, usually love SolidWorks and have no complaints.
http://www.dezignstuff.com/blog/?p=942
“Auto DESK and Dassault just keep slammin’ it to their customers, trying to wring dependance and money out of them.”
“Auto DESK and Dassault have become the arrogant PRO E of today. Sooner than later, a better business model will replace them also. History will repeat itself.”
“Looks more and more like a long range gang rape of the $1B CAD industry by vampire bankers doesn’t it?”
“Its a grand CAD foreclosure and a giant fraud/hoax on users everywhere. The search for a SW replacement just became more real. Inventor is off the list obviously.”
“Solidworks seems to be drifting away from geometry creation.”
“DS are lost to the dark side of pyramid schemes, racketeering and social engineering. They have picked up on the looting scams and leveraging the banksters have perfected and adapted it to the equally unsexy world of CAD.”
“Now too Autodesk are going to the cloud or so they say so the whole situation just became more sticky. Just because corporations exist to become bigger corporations and have to beat competitors any likelihood that the right thing will be done for users is quite miniscule. This is all about lock in and profit for DS and not serving customers.”
“The CAD that stays out of the cloud will win.”
Probably the most telling of the problems cloud computing has is this story on how BAE Systems abandoned cloud computing:
BAE Systems Abandons Microsoft Cloud Plans
Perhaps it's time for a little comedy on how ridiculously over hyped cloud computing can be:
Hitler Learns A Painful Lesson About Cloud Computing Security.
