Autodesk could adopt The Adobe Plan to crush Bricsys/Graebert/ITC once and for all

Autodesk ceo Carl Bass is admirer of Adobe's way of doing things, so much so that he has remarked numerous times that he bundled his company's software just like Adobe did.

Yesterday Adobe halted the license servers for its CS2 bundle of software, which includes the following programs for Windows or OS X: Acrobat 3D 1.0, Acrobat Standard 7.0, Acrobat Pro 8.0, Audition 3.0, GoLive CS2, Illustrator CS2, InCopy CS2, InDesign CS2, Photoshop CS2, Photoshop Elements 4.0/5.0, and Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0. You can download them from here.

Adobe came out with this software in 2005, and when I read that, it occurred to me that Autodesk could crush its ankle-biting competitors -- Bricsys, Graebert, and ITC -- by releasing AutoCAD 2006 (shipped in 2005) free. That's all it would take.

Boom. Over and done with.

 

Comments

[Jason]

Except you can't open newer dwg files with AutoCAD 2006 if you're dealing with customers/departments who have newer versions unless you get themt o save back which risks losing data.

[Rande Robinson]

Can't see Autodesk doing that mainly because I think it would kill of AutoCAD LT and people would expect support. If data compatibility issues were a problem then you just download draftsight (its free too).

[R. Paul Waddington]

Not as silly as it sounds Ralph (though would be many with counter arguments (see previous two comments) most of which can be countered when approached correctly and from a business point of view)

But consider the following; was talking recently with a senior person within a reasonably sized manufacturer selling engineered products world wide. The guys use a number of both 2D and 3D CAD licences and are reviewing what they have from a commercial perspective. The first thing which was indicated is to happen is the Subscription(s) due(3D) were not going to be renewed; the second thing was to move ALL existing 2D to a free (you can guess which one) as it has been found to more than handle the tasks required.

Being able to get free AutoCAD 2006 would have prevented the route now set in train and quite well have saved the more "profitable" 3D.

[Rakesh Rao]

Giving AutoCAD 2006 free will not work. I know very few guys who would be willing to pay for a later version of AutoCAD if 2006 were free.

What would kill their competition, however, is if they were to slash the price of their software by half. That seems more doable and plausible sometime me in the future. If the 4x cost difference comes down to 2x, I know many who will want to stay with AutoCAD.

[RobiNZ]

Corel used to sell legit copies of old CorelDraw very cheap. It was what initially made me a Corel user, then upgraded to more current versions as needed (which for me was only Win 3.1/95 and 95/XP transitions!).
Didn't make Corel an Adobe killer but I doubt that policy was responsible for this!

[Tim Neumann]

You still have to have some sort of account to use them from what I read elsewhere. Will all these run on Win7?

[Edwin Prakoso]

If AutoCAD 2006 only run on XP or older OS - and most computers are already using Win7 - I think it's possible. It's free but most people won't be able to use it anyway.
But if it still can run on Win7 smoothly, there is no chance Autodesk will give it away for free.
It's not just about isolated users and file compatibility.

[Ralph Grabowski]

You don't need an account with Adobe to download and install the software. Much of the tech media coverage is writers making guesses. I installed CS2:

1. Download the software from the Web site, which also provides the serial numbers you need.

I recommend you download the individual software programs you want, rather than the complete CS2 package. This is because the CS2 files expect to be installed from a CD.

2. Install. When prompted, copy and paste the serial number provided by the Adobe Web site.

3. When prompted to register, indicate that you don't want to.

4. Software runs normally.

[Stefan Boeykens]

The small print: this is NOT a free license but a repackaged perpetual license for existing users. You need a legit CS2 license. Now why they made this open to everybody is their mistake as most people wouldn't care. For Mac users: it doesn't run on newer OS X so little use for them.

[JGerth]

Personally, if Adesk released 2005, it would be vastly preferable to the 2006 version. No CUI, still light and quick, and had the basics of the featurs needed for everything 2D, and a fair bit 3d

The won't do it though, after all they just got done spending millions to make sure that R14 can't be resold.