I would agree with madires about the obvious showstoppers.
The cloud would be an absolute no-go for me. for any product. ever. I want to know where my files are stored, how to back them up and who owns them (the US government might export restrict the files, if the cloud is hosted in the US).
Not being able to work with software without internet connection is a huge disadvantage when for instance debugging something "in the field".
And I use Linux and windows mixed (I have to use windows for other software unfortunately...) and so far altium has never, to my knowledge, generated any software for other platforms.
I have used Protel99 for some time, and the workflow is very nice once you get used to the shortcuts. But that was paid software, and after I moved jobs I did not have the rights to use it anymore.
EAGLE at least allows custom keyboard shortcuts, so you can work faster. Any tool that misses keyboard workflow is no good for me.
Using EAGLE was a huge step back in workflow, but after a while you understand some of the weird design choices in EAGLE. I have since created many PCBs in EAGLE and not having the "advanced" lay-out clutter around is quite nice. But don't go and design impedance matched differential traces for LVDS or something like that. It was never meant for that.
I am very impressed with the german customer support team (in english). but I get the impression that farnell / element14 is not helping in any way. They just want revenue out of it. No experience with the US support..
Price wise I think EAGLE is extremely fair, and I use it commercially as well. Altium is just too damn expensive for startup companies, smaller engineering teams and hobbyists.
I don't mind paying for good software, but the altium price?
Maybe I should give KiCad a try, but having a registered EAGLE version, what's the point....I can get stuff done in EAGLE.
First post on the EEVblog! Hello everyone