The Future of eCabinet Systems

[Kirt F. Bowman]

Hi forum
I would like to chime in on the vista thing, Vista is superior in every way to xp IF YOU THROW ENOUGH HARDWARE AT IT. The whole bungling launch of Vista was a disaster, MS caved into Intel because Intel had an over supply of video chips that did not run Vista properly, but wanted to get the vista certification anyway. There is a possible class action lawsuit over this. All the hardware device drivers that should have been rewritten were not available fast enough even though MS put out info on compatability on their web sites. Apparently nobody checked. Who ever thought at MS that this would work should have been fired. Ignoring the Vista kernal which all new versions of windows will be built on is a mistake. XP will be gone just as all previous versions of windows. Should we all pretend this won't happen. Shall we all just think Ecabs can be built for XP forever? If you hitch your wagon to the MS train then you go where they lead you. There is no alternative. When apple went from OS 9 to OS X they abandoned all compatability with OS 9 they told you this up front. If you didn't like it buy something else. MS has not had the balls to do this yet, they are still trying to move forward but still keep legacy apps functioning.
Where I am going with all of this is Thermwood should not be developing for a dead OS and should get the whole thing ready for win 7. Stop all development for xp now and freeze it at its present level, this will be the XP version for all who want it, let the forum handle tech support. The win 7 version that will be tweaked and rewritten for the new kernal can then move forward with innovation without legacy baggage. Maybe Jason is already doing this, lets get real, sooner or later this needs to be done or ECabs will fail. I for one don't want this to happen.
The other missed opportunity that a lot of software developers are guilty of is not writing for multi core processor s, this is something that has really been a joke. We have all this superior hardware and very few developers take advantage of it, this seems strange when single core processors are dead. Thermwood needs to address that problem also.
As a loyal Ecab user I do want to say the marker idea is a good one, I worked for a 1 1/2 years trying to explain and make assembly fast and easy for the bench guys. This was a daily chore that all know about if you were doing a large number of boxes per day. So kudos for the design team on that one.
I wish Jason congrats on the new position, I thank Thermwood for thinking outside the box on Ecabs. I also believe now that Thermwood is actually using the program to produce furniture we will see more innovation faster for the program.
I hope everyone on the forum will survive these difficult times and will prosper in the upcoming year.

cheers

[Peter Walsh]

Kirt,
I think mostly, you have done well to frame the issues.
There is no escaping the march of MS to improve/modify/screw up their product at will. The demand of keeping thousands of folks employed literally forces MS to constantly search for ways to come out with new versions. Otherwise, they go out of business. We would all like a static, unchanging environment to keep our lives harmonious, but even in our world, we now have CNC's, sliding tables on our saws, dust collection, etc. all creating new learning demands and incidentally....jobs, as well as a superior cabinet product.
March on.

regards,

[Neville Bastian]

With Vista and windows 7 are important subjects but it seems they have hijacked this thread. Maybe a new thread of Windows7 and Ecabinets compatibility?

To me the future of Ecabinets with version 6 is for the input from Thermwood users in getting its weaker points beefed up. In time of recession getting the management of time and materials cranking so we can save and make a buck. With the operation of the program continually made easier so every small cabinet shop can download it and use it then send files to us to process. That means work and charging out Thermwood machine time.
As much as I would like Ecabinets to take advantage of intels latest quad and higher processors, I would put up with half the speed for a users improved ecabinets that gave the results quicker without having to have work arounds in many parts of the program.
Maybe soon Jason and Ken will let us know when a Beta version is coming out on version 6?
Regards

Neville