We have no plan or desire to stop supporting Mac OS as it’s still a large portion of our customers.
We do not however have any plan at this time to ever support iOS (iPad and iPhones).
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I too think this decision comes at a wrong time. The popularity of Linux as a platform is increasing right now, driven by Steam showing that it is a viable option even for gamers (increasing general usage and knowledge) and also driven by increasing surveillance activity of Microsoft.
Just this year all statistics services noticed a measurable increase in Linux users. Global usage now ranging from 3 to 5% of desktop users depending on measurement method. China banned Windows from its government computers and forces Linux now. Schools are encouraged to switch soon. Nordic countries also great Linux affinity with market share nearing a tipping point where the average user will be familiar with Linux: Desktop Operating System Market Share Norway | Statcounter Global Stats also showing the strong increase in the last two years.
All the problems mentioned here should be comparatively easy to solve:
- Limit support to a few or even one distribution and enforce that, you can encourage users to reproduce bugs in that distribution if they want them fixed.
- Use standard interfaces for cameras and other hardware and leave support to the open source community, you have written you already do this partially and it conflicts with your licensing system. Then just use another system, or compile that part statically and link it. Don’t discriminate against people who want to support and buy your software in your fight against people who don’t do that.
- Develop using platform independent tools.
I use many programming languages and avoid those which do not support platform independence. In the several million lines of code I have written maybe about 2000 are platform specific and those are mostly paths (/dev/ttyUSB* instead of COM*, lib.so instead of lib.dll). And I work with hardware quite often in my job.
Nonetheless, even if you insist on your path of abandoning Linux and even if you said Linux users will be able to use 1.7 anyway when they bought once I will now upgrade my license one final time because your software works amazingly well under Linux and has saved me countless hours. I will gladly pay for the new features developed for 1.7 and am thankful for them.
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100% agree. Dropped windows after 7. Big tech has just gotten a little too handsy with user data, mining, profiling and general data collection. They used to ask permission or have an option to opt out or disable telemetry it and now it just feels like a free for all on anything connected to the internet. It’s not ok and never will be. Linux to me is practically existential.
I’m with you on the stance of “pick a linux distro to support and run with it”. I understand it can be a nightmare to maintain cross *nix compatibility. For me, I don’t care which version/flavor of linux as long as its linux. I can spin up a sandboxed environment, do offline activation and use whatever for this solution.
LightBurn has been an awesome software solution and this news comes a month after buying my laser, so it is a bit of a let down. The current version does everything I need, so as long as it keeps doing that I’m not too upset about it, but I hate to see support for this community die off in any capacity.
may the force be with you.
noooooooo, why?? I have 2 PCs with Linux and Lightburn!!! It was one of the few commercial software that worked well on Linux! I’m very sad…
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As a new laser owner but long term 3D printer, I get it. The culture around lasers isn’t the same as 3D printing, where Linux is practically the default. (Who doesn’t use Octopi?) I really appreciate that this Lightburn supports Linux in the current version, and I’m happy with the purchase.
BAD bad decision.
We’ve been using Linux exclusively for over a decade now on all our systems and Lightburn Linux has been one of the applications that we use extensively.
Supporting debian installs is all you need to satisfy the Linux community for the most popular distros - Ubuntu/Mint/Arch Linux. Avoid flatpacks and any install type belonging to paid-Linux brands, who try to corner the Linux market in Apple-like style, and you’ll be good.
But dropping Linux altogether like a sack of potatoes and leaving your Linux-only base, who helped you start this business, with no alternative, is a mistake that can cost you dearly in future.
The community never forgets. Some out there are already working on a better Linux alternative thanks to this announcement.
It’s a bad move. You won’t be able to retract it.
Would you consider adding a network mode for the actual device access? I would imagine that the USB interface logic is some of the largest part of the OS-specific logic and at the same time, the component that is most likely to create problems when running under Wine. It would also add functionality e.g. to be able to hook up a laser cutter to a Raspberry Pi for control and run LightBurn itself on a regular computer.
USB access is generally through LibUSB or well established drivers, so no, that’s not the issue, and LightBurn already supports networked connections for GRBL, Ruida, TopWisdom, and Trocen devices.
I’m disappointed, and won’t argue, you have your reasons, even if I’m not convinced… anyway, maybe a good time to give a chance to MEERK40T ? 