Mach3 vs Mach4

[Boyan Silyavski]

Hi,
my oppinion is :
Depends on how exactly you value your time.
When i was brand new in CNC I tried both and payed Mach3. The machine i bought had personal mach3 screens that saved me a lot of fiddling. Had some problems and they were quickly solved by the guy that made the machine. had another problems and in a minute they were solved or by personal email from the Mach3 team or in the Mach forum. Needed some personalizing of the screen and for a couple of box a guy did it /from the Mach3 forum.

Look at the Mach3 price like your paying for the support, not the program itself.

[Swarfing]

silyavski this is very true and if you PAY for your software you should EXPECT the appropriate support. Horses for courses and people should research what is best for them before taking the plunge. I for one would not venture into any software before finding out if there where any known issues with my hardware, paying for it or not. Look at how many issues there are just trying to get M4 released?

I rest my case :-)

[birchy]

Well, my experience with the LinuxCNC forums is that they've always been helpful and quick to respond. Most of the developers actually run CNC machines, so understand hardware as well as software. I think they can be a bit off-ish when people ask stupid questions like "why dunt my motorz work?" or ask operating questions that are clearly explained in the user manuals. The difference here is that the Mach developers are profit orientated, so are more willing to hold hands and wipe bums.

For Geeks like myself and Swarfing, we are fed up of the constant barrage of Windows updates, security packages and buggy software breaking things all the time. I personally discovered Linux when a friend's Windows 98 PC had become so corrupted that it was beyond repair. The ONLY way I was able to recover important files from the hard drive was using a Linux "Live CD". I'd never even heard of Linux before but was so impressed that I installed it on my own PC and have not used Windows since. The world's best supercomputers all use Linux. Google use Linux. The majority of web servers use Linux. Android IS Linux. The fact is, Microsoft had the best advertising campaign at the beginning of the computer revolution and is a totally profit based company.

For most of us "geeks", I think we are more annoyed that Micro$oft have duped the world into paying for a generally inferior operating system when there are FREE alternatives available. For me personally, I'm even more annoyed that the recent versions of Windows have copied features from Linux (Aero themes, multiple desktops, etc) and poor old Joe Public thinks "wow! that's cool!" but doesn't even realise that they could get the same thing for free a few years ago.

I shall dismount the soapbox now...

Regarding CNC software, it's a specialized setup and there's no need for bells and whistles. In fact, simplicity means stability, so avoiding an internet connection (and all the associated security risks and updates) is highly beneficial. Just like any other job, it's a case of choosing the most reliable and productive tools that YOU are comfortable with. If that turns out to be Mach or Eding or LinuxCNC or something else, then so be it. Bollocks to what everyone else thinks. My only advice is to keep an open mind and try as many as you can until you find the one you like best.