So, I had a tiny bit of a back-and-forth with David. Figured I'd share here. I am cautiously optimistic that at some point in the future there may be some better hobbyist offerings, but I'd guess if there is any forward momentum at all, it will take a long time, and probably consist of a lot of "half-baked" licensing solutions until we finally get to a good spot (if ever). I'd love to be proven wrong though if you're reading this WDC.
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My response:
Quote:
Hello David,
I very much appreciate your responding to me about this, thank you.
Well, I have to say that I'm disappointed by this, but also am quite a bit confused. I can tell from looking around your company website and your Twitter feed that as a company you do see (at least to some limited extent) the value in fostering the hobbyist/enthusiast community surrounding your products. However, I cannot fathom why you would arbitrarily place walls around one of your tools that surely you can see is still of high value to those same hobbyists?
I can only hope that as a company, you understand that not all hobbyists stop with projects that merely blink LEDs or some such similar thing. Some people like to work on much more involved projects with your products, but at the same time are quite happy keeping it a hobby project and have no interest in turning it into a commercial venture. Such people are still very much interested in using the best tools possible and are definitely willing to sink money into it. Arbitrary walls like this eventually only serve to alienate those people who will at some point look into alternatives when they find that you're unwilling to sell them the tools they desire.
-Gered
David's response:
Quote:
Hello Gered,
Thank you for your helpful comments.
We do not wish to alienate the market but we do wish to understand the market. Currently WDC does not possess a licensing solution for the hobby market as pertains to our software support items such as the C Compiler. Based on your feedback I will look to work with the WDC team to further evaluate what can be done to provide the tools necessary for all to be successful.
Best,
David R. Cramer
Vice President- Business Development
The Western Design Center, Inc.
WesternDesignCenter.com / WDC65xx.com
65xx Embedded Intelligence Technology
My final reply (no further response)
Quote:
That's all I ask! Thank you for taking the time to hear me out. I understand that these things take time and look forward to seeing what additional hobbyist licensing solutions WDC is able to provide in the future.
Thanks,
-Gered
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BigDumbDinosaur wrote:
Gered wrote:
Finally got a response which surprised me as this was my third (?) email over the past year on the same subject...
It does seem as though WDC has backpedaled quite a bit on this. For a long time, the compiler-assembler package was available to anyone who was willing to spend 400 USD to get it. Then the package's price was reduced to around 40 USD and WDC was pushing the heck out of it. Now, they are selling it the same way they are selling their RTL code for building 65xx MPUs in an FPGA. I don't get it. It almost seems as though they are shooting themselves in the foot with this policy change. If nothing else, as you point out, WDC is discouraging hobby experimenters.
And yeah, this is my exact source of confusion. They clearly were willing to sell to hobbyists. Now they are not. I cannot understand why, and I was hoping to get some sort of answer here, but sadly as you can see, I did not. I sincerely hope that David was being genuine when he said he would take my feedback over to his team and see what they could come up with, but given the history surrounding their hobbyist licensing offerings and how they've slowly disappeared over time, I'm worried nothing will materialize.