Corporate banning all politically-driven western made software & hardware.

[Mecanix]

The 3k employees corporation I work for is undergoing major risk management and restructuring, of which, among other things, involves the complete decoupling from western made software & hardware. As an example; we are being told that Windows OS will be banned on all workstations starting Jan 1st 2025. So will be Siemens NX and Altium Designer, of which the E&M.Eng teams are tooled with currently, to name just a few out of quite a few more. Product lines' western made CPUs, MCUs, FPGAs, passives, etc etc all that eventually gets decimated and replaced with eastern made equivalents.

Why I'm saying this is, management have yet officially told us what are the replacements/equivalents for those EDA and CAD tools due to ongoing negotiations and contractual agreements (confidentiality). All we know 'officially' for now anyway is we're moving toward a custom linux kernel (made in-house).

Does anyone know which foreign company(ies) offers professional linux based EDA software? Name a few so I can add this to our speculation list during lunch...

[jpanhalt]

What logic to avoid "Western" influence allows Linux to be preferred?  It was birthed in Finland.  Is there any OS that is neither Western nor Eastern?  Sounds like a typical management smoke screen for the real motive.

Edit: Corrected typo in Linux

[temperance]

I would change the content of your message because it is easy to guess in which of the few companies on Island you might be employed and you never know who might be reading what you wrote.

[Mecanix]

I would change the content of your message...

No need. Public knowledge, as in shareholders were officially made aware last Fri 5th April. Memo circulated internally the day prior that. Nothing secret, however I'll still leave the corp id out of this. ps I'm obvi not from an Island, sure feels like cocoland though....

@jpanhalt - motive is crystal clear, maximizing profits long term and risk management (economically). Not exactly the first company we know of who've recently restructured similarly, or in the process of doing so, like ours. Quite a significant number of them given the recent weaponizing of trade & economics a/k/a western-new-normal. Not only private and public corporations in fact, but foreign institutions also.

I'd still like to know who offers politically neutral and professional grade linux based EDA & CAD solutions. Part I'm missing and which I'm interested in.

[jpanhalt]

Have you heard of the feigned retreat tactic? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feigned_retreat).  I doubt in an East v. West situation the East will be any more less political.  It may seem less today, but is that simply a lure?

[Mecanix]

Have you heard of the feigned retreat tactic?

You'll have to pardon my severe lack of interest about military philosophies.

Foreign EDA/CAD? I need names, so I can set some hope on ditching those profit-eating Teamcenter & Bundles/maintenance licenses soon! (I'm a contractor).

[langwadt]

What logic to avoid "Western" influence allows Linus to be preferred?

that the company is a country that is on a restricted list or doesn't understand copyright so the "western" companies aren't allowed or doesn't want to deal with it ?

[Mecanix]

that the company is a country that is on a restricted list or doesn't understand copyright so the "western" companies aren't allowed or doesn't want to deal with it ?

It's actually a western public company. Ironically, decoupling from its own jurisdiction's big brother-like suppressive licensees & free market imposed restrictions.

[thm_w]

Isn't Kicad the only good native option on linux?

[SiliconWizard]

Zuken (Cadstar) is japanese - do you consider that "western" (I wouldn't think so)? We used Cadstar in one of my previous companies, it's pretty good. Commercial package, obviously.
And if you're going for a Linux-based OS, you're going to have a problem anyway. I don't know if Cadstar runs under Wine, I would suspect not. And you wouldn't get any support for software that's expensive, so you won't do that.

So yes, you're pretty much left with KiCad.

[nctnico]

Cadence Allegro runs on Linux. But other than that you'll need to use Kicad

[Mecanix]

Interesting. Fair to say the industry seriously lack over-the-counter soft options. Apart from Kicad perhaps, which certainly fill this gap quite nicely. Rumor has it (internally) that the dev team will be reusing defunct APIs from someone else and come up with proprietary ECAD-MCAD'ish team soft. No idea how close to reality this is.

And so your contribs confirm what was discussed over lunch today (thanks). Nobody really knew, neither could speculate who could potentially be filling these 'neutral' linux based solutions.

So fun... almost!

[SiliconWizard]

What makes it difficullt at the moment is that most EDA packages were developed for Windows (for obvious market reasons), so there's very little for Linux in terms of commercial solutions.
Cadence is an exception, as they have long offered tools for Linux - actually some of their tools were even Linux-only (like the microeletronics design tools).
But, if the company must not be western AND have Linux-compatible software, you're asking for a needle in a haystack.
Though, I would still have a look at Zuken products - maybe they have something now that can run on Linux, who knows. Didn't check recently.

But, as a side note, "neutral" Linux doesn't mean much unfortunately. There's no such thing. Even with KiCad - sure it will usually run properly on most distributions, but the KiCad team only supports a couple of them officially and if you use any other, you're on your own - they won't help you, and you can say goodbye to their pro support if you need it.

[coppercone2]

is this the belt and road initiative in action?

sound slashdot worthy

[sanleontexas]

Why no Aussie reply? Do they not care what goes on in their far western territory?

[SiliconWizard]

Is Australia East or West? That's a relative problem.

[floobydust]

is this the belt and road initiative in action?

sound slashdot worthy

"China Intensifies Push to ‘Delete America’ From Its Technology"
"A directive known as Document 79 ramps up Beijing’s effort to replace U.S. tech with homegrown alternatives"

> ban all Western software
> ask West for what software to use 

[CatalinaWOW]

Ban western. technology,  while complaining about western restrictions on "eastern" tech.

Those making these decisions know exactly what they are doing, and it's a long game.

[IanB]

If you consider the current state of EULAs, telemetry and other restrictions, it is not unreasonable to find ways to avoid such vendors. It is not so much that they are "western", it is more that they are increasingly unpalatable to do business with.

[vk6zgo]

Why no Aussie reply? Do they not care what goes on in their far western territory?

Mecanix made it fairly clear in reply#3 that the Cocos (Keeling) address is simply one of convenience, just as some others proudly proclaim themselves to be citizens of Antarctica.

[jpanhalt]

Along with supposedly trying to wipe politics out of the workplace, does or will the company also forbid employees to use social media?