Altium, Save Protel99SE Users with an Affordable Altium99SE!

[ProtelRick]

Hey folks,

I’ve been a Protel99SE die-hard for decades, since Protel was 2 creaky packages with a hardware dongle from my printer port on a 90 Meg, Pentium 2.
I know ALL the qwerks of 99SE now. at 72, I don't need a new learning curve.
Altium bought Protel and left us high and dry—no support, forcing us to limp along on creaky XP machines, dodgy emulators, or Linux hacks. We’re the ones who helped build Altium with our licenses and feedback, yet they’re pushing $2,000–$8,000/year Altium Designer subscriptions or that cloud-locked 365 nonsense. No thanks—I buy software, I don’t rent it.

I’m calling on Altium to launch Altium99SE, a, low, low low one off cost, single-user version that imports Protel99SE files, databases, and libraries, with the same 6-layer support and autorouting we love. It’s not a big ask—Altium Designer already handles Protel imports. They just need to disable enterprise fluff like multi-user collab. This could be a trainee coder’s project, not a rewrite.
Enter our Protel licences and away we go.

Why bother? Because thousands of us are still out here, but we’re a dying breed. KiCad’s pulling 1.5M downloads a year, luring young designers and small shops who can’t afford Altium’s prices or stomach 365’s file lockouts (check Reddit’s r/Altium for the horror stories). Altium’s risking losing us and new users. An Altium99SE would keep us loyal and draw in folks who want Protel’s simplicity on modern systems.

I have composed a letter to Altium’s CEO, Aram Mirkazemi, making the case for an Altium99SE package at a low, low, one off cost (None of this 365 BS or having our designs lost in the cloud. Local files only). Who’s with me?

I'm not asking for financial support or starting a go fund me... I just want Altium to recognise that it was we Protel users that made Protel worthy of a take over, and as such we should not have the rug pulled from under us. Altium are losing out to free KiCad software.

Many people claim Protel99SE works on Linux, but there's no single set of command lines to achieve this. Vague references to files that crash or damage wine, and suggestions to delete or alter DLL files that seem more malicious than helpful.
I have over 5,000 designs on my system. Not bad for a one man band.

I fear the day my XP machine says "Insert boot media" (Hard drive backed up but ...)

Are you still rocking Protel99SE?
Let’s show Altium we’re worth supporting. If they ignore us, I’m taking this to X and tech blogs next.

No hate please.
Support me in principle or remain silent.
Show me a guaranteed command line script to get protel running on Linux Mint, or see the above.
The next mail I send is to Altium’s CEO, Aram Mirkazemi.

regards.

ProtelRick
Colchester UK.

[voltsandjolts]

I wish you luck but keep in mind that Altium seems to not care what it's customers think.

XP should run as a VM in virtual box quite snappily.

[abeyer]

[thm_w]

I’m calling on Altium to launch Altium99SE, a, low, low low one off cost, single-user version that imports Protel99SE files, databases, and libraries, with the same 6-layer support and autorouting we love.

Altium’s risking losing us and new users. An Altium99SE would keep us loyal and draw in folks who want Protel’s simplicity on modern systems.

Why would they care if they only make $50 or whatever off of it? It won't happen.
New users would use kicad or Altium (via free student license), or something else.

They already tried this with circuitmaker/circuitstudio. Would have been good but I'm sure its the same issue, the money being made was not enough to justify the development costs, that or it undercut their main license sales.