The latest stable release of KiCad PCB design software is out
KiCad 5.1.6 Release | KiCad EDA
KiCad 5.1.6 Release | KiCad EDA
There is also a cost associated with paid for software, both the money to pay for it, and the fact that most paid for software still will not bother to fix the bugs you find.
A lot of commercial software is released before it has clearly been tested properly by enough people to really show the issues. No different to free software really.
Taken a while, but a bug submitted on KiCad that has been driving me nuts for a while has had a fix committed. At least you can track the progress of bugs on open source software like KiCad, and you can submit the bugs in a publicly visible and traceable way.
And if you have the time and skills (or are willing to learn the skills) you could always just fix it yourself and help everyone else out.
A lot of commercial software is released before it has clearly been tested properly by enough people to really show the issues. No different to free software really.
Taken a while, but a bug submitted on KiCad that has been driving me nuts for a while has had a fix committed. At least you can track the progress of bugs on open source software like KiCad, and you can submit the bugs in a publicly visible and traceable way.
And if you have the time and skills (or are willing to learn the skills) you could always just fix it yourself and help everyone else out.
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Worse than that, commercial software companies have motivation to release before complete testing and debugging, because of a need to beat the competition. Not all do that, but the motivation is there. Free software doesn't have such motivation, though it too can get released too early either by rushing or missing bugs during testing by volunteers.
That said, I REALLY like KiCAD. I find it complete enough and easier to use than the big bux commercial programs I've used.
Its swings and roundabouts between simple CAD and complex CAD.
An example is auto-routing a PCB.
A simple CAD program will have an attempt at it and will probably have a small set of parameters you can set up.
A complex CAD system will have a setting for each tracks/pads/text minimum width/clearance and this means having to input all these at schematic stage.
As the software gets more complex so can the bugs.
A quick visit to a few CAD vendors forums will show all the problems that can occur.
My main beef with free software is its putting good software engineers out of a job.
Ford dont give away cars and so put other car makers out of business so why should software outfits do it ?
How would you feel if I knocked on your bosses door tomorrow and said I will do your job for free ?
I have visited KICAD's website a few times and they freely admit new versions of software aren't fully tested. The fun bit of software is writing it, the crap end is the careful testing which can take as long again as it took to write.
An example is auto-routing a PCB.
A simple CAD program will have an attempt at it and will probably have a small set of parameters you can set up.
A complex CAD system will have a setting for each tracks/pads/text minimum width/clearance and this means having to input all these at schematic stage.
As the software gets more complex so can the bugs.
A quick visit to a few CAD vendors forums will show all the problems that can occur.
My main beef with free software is its putting good software engineers out of a job.
Ford dont give away cars and so put other car makers out of business so why should software outfits do it ?
How would you feel if I knocked on your bosses door tomorrow and said I will do your job for free ?
I have visited KICAD's website a few times and they freely admit new versions of software aren't fully tested. The fun bit of software is writing it, the crap end is the careful testing which can take as long again as it took to write.
Interesting points, if you offered to do my job for free and I still get paid then go for it 
Seriously though; my viewpoint is this - and I have just noticed you do a cheap EDA software so this is NOT an attack on you, I am talking about software that costs even just a few hundred (pounds, dollars whatever) - if you cannot offer anything more than a free piece of software, why did you waste time making it?
KiCad is awesome, I have just started a new job using Eagle, and it's okay, but I don't see any point in it over KiCad given the cost. Even Circuit Studio looks cheaper and might have a couple of extra useful features, but this changes all the time, next week Eagle might have the best feature set.
The biggest problem I have is companies that buy software for the name. Altium is a good example, I find it unstable but very powerful. However most companies I have worked for only need a fraction of the features, that you find in free software. And even the companies that could use Altium to it's full advantage; they just don't.
Just doesn't make sense to me. Unless you get the extra support for the money - and this has let me down big time before where a company would not fix a bug even though we were paying for a support license - why spend the money when you can get the bugs fixed in free software.
Seriously though; my viewpoint is this - and I have just noticed you do a cheap EDA software so this is NOT an attack on you, I am talking about software that costs even just a few hundred (pounds, dollars whatever) - if you cannot offer anything more than a free piece of software, why did you waste time making it?
KiCad is awesome, I have just started a new job using Eagle, and it's okay, but I don't see any point in it over KiCad given the cost. Even Circuit Studio looks cheaper and might have a couple of extra useful features, but this changes all the time, next week Eagle might have the best feature set.
The biggest problem I have is companies that buy software for the name. Altium is a good example, I find it unstable but very powerful. However most companies I have worked for only need a fraction of the features, that you find in free software. And even the companies that could use Altium to it's full advantage; they just don't.
Just doesn't make sense to me. Unless you get the extra support for the money - and this has let me down big time before where a company would not fix a bug even though we were paying for a support license - why spend the money when you can get the bugs fixed in free software.
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I have always prided myself in fixing any bugs people find straight away.
Same goes for suggested improvements if they make sense.
I do not run a "bug list" because as far as I know there is no bug I know about that hasn't been fixed.
I have made for myself about 300 pcb's using the software so if there are any problems I quickly trip over them in serious use.
You will probably laugh at this but I originally wrote mine in Assembler for DOS pc's in around 1990 as I got cheesed off with EasyPC being buggy. Its certainly never made me a fortune, especially now there is so much competition.
Its more of a "keep my hand in" project.
It has taken me through Assembler, Delphi, Microsoft C# to Microsoft .NET core.
Same goes for suggested improvements if they make sense.
I do not run a "bug list" because as far as I know there is no bug I know about that hasn't been fixed.
I have made for myself about 300 pcb's using the software so if there are any problems I quickly trip over them in serious use.
You will probably laugh at this but I originally wrote mine in Assembler for DOS pc's in around 1990 as I got cheesed off with EasyPC being buggy. Its certainly never made me a fortune, especially now there is so much competition.
Its more of a "keep my hand in" project.
It has taken me through Assembler, Delphi, Microsoft C# to Microsoft .NET core.
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I find KiCad awesome, because it's a case where open-source software is actually making some serious ground against the big guys.
One of the big things that drives me insane about most paid software is the licensing. Solidworks is probably the biggest offender, and also a big offender in that they charge a ridiculous amount of money for their student version. Anything autodesk is not great either, but at least they don't charge students $100 per year for a license. Engineering school (at least in the US) is four years if you're lucky, five or six if you're not.
The problem some of these big companies have is that they charge huge amounts of money for their software, have awful licensing practices, and their software is, in many cases, less functional than free (or low-cost) options. I know several people who have given Pro Tools the boot and are now using Mixbus or Reaper because of AVID's awful licensing practices. Mixbus is about $60, made by a company that has made excellent mixing consoles since the 70s (one of it's founders was a former MCI engineer), and doesn't have the issues that Pro Tools does. And it runs on Linux.
Furthermore, open-source software tends to be better about cross-platform compatibility. KiCad runs on Linux. The same cannot be said for most of the paid options. The moment I can jump the Windows ship I will. Linux is pleasurable to use, Windows is not.
One of the big things that drives me insane about most paid software is the licensing. Solidworks is probably the biggest offender, and also a big offender in that they charge a ridiculous amount of money for their student version. Anything autodesk is not great either, but at least they don't charge students $100 per year for a license. Engineering school (at least in the US) is four years if you're lucky, five or six if you're not.
The problem some of these big companies have is that they charge huge amounts of money for their software, have awful licensing practices, and their software is, in many cases, less functional than free (or low-cost) options. I know several people who have given Pro Tools the boot and are now using Mixbus or Reaper because of AVID's awful licensing practices. Mixbus is about $60, made by a company that has made excellent mixing consoles since the 70s (one of it's founders was a former MCI engineer), and doesn't have the issues that Pro Tools does. And it runs on Linux.
Furthermore, open-source software tends to be better about cross-platform compatibility. KiCad runs on Linux. The same cannot be said for most of the paid options. The moment I can jump the Windows ship I will. Linux is pleasurable to use, Windows is not.
Not at all.
The programs are different in many ways so its hard to compare them.
Personally I didnt like KICAD.
I felt it had a lot of functions that mine has missing.
I did like the large libraries KICAD has.
Mine doesnt have that but does provide very good component wizards.
For me, it's Assembler, Pascal/MT+, Turbo-Pascal, Turbo-C, gcc and maybe QT soon.
I love the internet, it's like one massive mind bending game...
I should also say that my previous question "if you cannot offer anything more than a free piece of software, why did you waste time making it?" was rhetorical - I have designed and built an open source DSP platform. What was the point when I could have bought a miniDSP 4x10 hD. Well it's just something to do really, and sometimes it's fun...
I have the greatest respect for people who do either open source software, or even low cost software/hardware (not making money), things like Arduino come to mind (and KiCad obviously), even commercial companies that release cheap development boards with supporting software. Software wise something like Sprint Layout is a good example, just a really nice easy to use cheap layout package.
Whilst KiCad has several donate options, would be nice if it had a "donate to fix a certain bug" option. I would have paid to have a bug fixed...
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