I’m wondering how many LightBurn for Linux users here would consider getting on the annual subscription wagon with LightBurn for Linux if there was a working Raspberry Pi image? Not talking native ARM, just running on the rPi.
There’s already instructions on how to get LightBurn for Linux working on an rPi via an x86 emulator running on the rPi. I could package that up into an OS image file. Not having any idea if doubling the Linux user base AND annual subscription base to 2x the current 3,000 would change any minds.
Linux users have spent about $340,000, spread over the nearly 6 years LightBurn has existed. That’s gross revenue. We have done the math - all of the math - multiple times.
We honestly did not want to do this, but every scenario we’ve run comes to the same conclusion: Supporting Linux costs us a significant amount more than we make from it, and those costs have been steadily increasing, while the overall share of Linux users has been decreasing.
Add me to the list of disappointed Linux users. When I got my laser cutter there were open source / free options that probably would have met my needs, but I bought a LightBurn license because it ran on Linux.
Sadly, also add me to the list of linux users who never bothered to renew the license because LightBurn 1.2.04 did everything I needed it to. I had no interest in paying for an upgrade that supported new machines that I didn’t have, nor better art features (I decided a long time ago to focus on getting proficient with drawing in Inskape rather than learn the same skills in a laser program, then learn them again in a vinyl cutter program, then yet a third time for CNC).
Fast forward to 2024, and I was upgrading my laptop. I re-downloaded v1.2.04, dug my license key out of an old email, and I’m off to the races. I really respect LightBurn’s licensing model. I was on the fence about whether or not to renew my license - from what I can tell there’s still not a lot of new features since 1.2 that I would actually use - but I was gonna do it anyway just to support a company that supported Linux. Now I don’t know - I might just look for another option that supports Linux, layers, and a material library.
Why do you even care, then? If you never upgraded since then, you might have never done in the future. So the situation has not changed for you. No offense, just sounded very contradicting while reading
And it’s racking my head trying to think of why that would be, not the increasing costs but the decreasing numbers. I can understand the percentage decreasing because Windows is preloaded everywhere but the actual numbers of Linux users should be growing with all the consumer level diode lasers on the market being GRBL based. K40’s have little effect since they require a controller upgrade so that’s a pain point limiting LightBurn usage/growth but diode lasers are everywhere now.
So I’m missing something related to why you’ve not been seeing growth in the Linux user base. And I’m not saying there should be a huge enough growth to change your mind, just that it shouldn’t be a reality that decreasing share is a thing.
You might have nailed it with how Linux/UNIX users are well equipped and trained to use multiple tools to get the job done as opposed to one integrated package. I started doing the same thing with my K40 from day one and even after I put a smoothie based controller in it. Design in Inkscape or even GIMP then Inkscape and then off to the USB sender app.
Windows users are all about integrated packages and easily get confused when having to switch between apps and files, etc. I’m a member of a few maker communities and it’s been the same thing when I demo a process. Half the group says but “why not just use X, Y, Z $1500 software because it does it all”. Or “software X came with the machine and I can do half that in that tool so that’s good enough.”
A few in this message thread have even stated, like you, they have old versions of LightBurn on the computer at the machine. So the problem the company sees is there’s not enough growth in new LightBurn or Linux users since so many have purchased, found it useful but don’t buy into all the updates which have been making it a much more powerful design editing tool along with adding devices like fiber lasers.
And as you know, once you get good at a tool, like Inkscape, it is where you continue doing your design work. Try getting a Fusion360 user to use FreeCAD telling them the CAM tool is far better than Fusion360. They’ll tell you they’d rather have warts in the CAM output than change the design tool they know( which is the point of the ‘story’ ).
Not sure how we can or could change this. Software development uses to be all about different tools and even IDEs were MDI(multi-document interfaces) with multiple windows showing debugging, editing, object associations, etc. Microsoft switched VisualC to an integrated single window app and those left followed so now most all software development is done in a single window and the IDE does everything. Windows users are trained this way and LightBurn is a great tool for them.
I’m not doing that; I’ll stick with the latest Linux version and see what happens. Perhaps another company or the Linux community will step in—you never know. I’m definitely not going to switch my workshop PCs to Windows machines just because of Lightburn’s plans. No way.
This is honestly something we’ve considered… but we don’t actually have ARM builds working yet. Oddly enough, dropping Linux is partly to help make time to actually get Mac and Windows ARM builds working. However, once, that’s done we might be able to circle back to a Pi… no promises.
I’m saying that having ARM builds figured out might make that possible and that we had, at some point, talked about it as a theoretical option. That is all.
The main idea for that was that a lot of the reason we’ve heard of customers using Linux is that they wanted to install something on a cheap old computer out in their shop to control the laser.
We’ve already had users get the x86 builds running on Pi but it’s hacky. My thought was that we could, in theory, have a build that ONLY runs on the Pi. The next closest thing to literally shipping customers a pre-configured computer. It would run on Pi hardware and ONLY Pi hardware and allow an option for a cheap shop computer. It would also alleviate some of the compatibility issues because it would be a very specific, single known platform.
But again… this is all entirely hypothetical and just something I was nothing as a thing we considered but rejected because we don’t have ARM builds working for any platform yet.
By far the highest priority ARM platform is Mac OS since we already have many, many customers running Mac OS on ARM. The Rosetta translation later works for now, but just like with the move to Intel from PPC, Apple will take that away eventually. Which is why we’ve been wanting to dedicate resources to ARM builds.
oh gawd, is there really belief that Windows on ARM will stick around this time and engineering time being spent on it?
This is the 3rd or 4th attempt and Qualcomm has had exclusive rights with Microsoft for something like 5 years so this was their last shot. Last shot means they had to hide data, pump up benchmarks and maybe even overclock demo systems.
Just seems kinda early to be putting any effort towards Microsoft’s ARM platform. Apple makes sense though.
I buy refurbished Thinkcentre micro PCs for cheap shop computers. It’s like $100 and is x86. Homeassistant OS also run great on one of those. Flash it from USB, done. No ARM, no performance problems from underspecced Pi.
They do tend to come with Windows. I’ve never booted one into Windows because I can’t have my machines be unstable.
Just saying there are a lot of well established platforms that are even less trouble than a Pi build. I would keep buying Lightburn if it was restricted to a small set of hardware and managed OS. Or you could even sell a Lightburn appliance. It would likely be popular.
I hope at least that the windows version will be able to work under wine, or proton…
What about those of us who paid a license for a year where we only have a few months left of software usage ?
Still I really think you made the wrong choice. You don’t see the big picture.
China has already banned windows in all her administration and school system. Young Chineese learn Kylin not windows. Russia is underway and India is following the same steps (where linux is already 14% of the computers). What do you think is going to happen in Europe if Trumps gets reelected (French army and German administration and army are already going Linux) ? The recent Crowdstrike incident as already let some traces too in Corporate IT departments.
Windows with their AI Copilot PC and their recall « innovation » is going to take assurely a lot of strong blows as Recall is very easy to hack and exploit. While in the meantime a lot of linux distros go Atomic & Immutable wich will make Linux even more secure in comparison
I’m pretty sure that windows market share is going to shrink a lot in the medium future… But it’s your call…
The LB people have decided and they won’t change their minds. We Linux users are financially not interesting anymore. We can still use the latest version for a while and move on after that. I have renewed my license 2 months ago and that was the last one. It is what it is…
