Cloud softwar is lame.

[Anonymous]

So this morning I have a project I want to get done. I get up at 4am and start my mac pro. Fusion needs an update to start. So I update. 1 hour later it will not launch because the upgrade did something bad and the software recommends that I delete it and re-download the hole thing. Three hours later I am late on my project and wont be getting it done in today. This is why I hate cloud software. I use solid works for paying jobs. Looks like I will have to continue to use a non cloud based software, because cloud software sucks. Like ostrich egg sucks. I do not like that I have to update every two weeks. Why cant it be every quarter. Upgrades are not that essential.

[roambotics_scott]

These are real problems, but they're not intrinsic to cloud software, just architectural* and (more critically) philosophical choices made by Autodesk.

The biggest underlying problem has nothing to do with the cloud backing, but the commandment that «F360 shalt depend on the cloud».

Done well, network storage and processing augments user experience by enhancing something that's already solid and good and adding ubiquity, collaboration, and shared resources to take care of the heavy lifting in terms of storage, backup, and processing.

The focus shouldn't be on whether or not the cloud is involved. Any modern application should include the ability to take advantage of nonlocal resources, where that makes sense. Locking onto the idea that the cloud is a panacea just guarantees bad user experiences and invites this sort of (semi-misguided) criticism.

Where the focus should be is on what matters - building the best user experience while being agnostic to what's under the hood.

Sometimes that will mean using local resources, and sometimes it'll mean using S3, EC2, etc.

The upgrade thing is orthogonal to the cloud. There should be a «bleeding edge» / unstable beta stream for people like me who want to upgrade to the latest nightly or weekly builds, a «stable» stream, and «conservative» (only major revision / bugfix) stream for people who want quarterly or less frequent updates. 

* What's annoying here is that it's obvious that F360 is at its core a natively local app with hooks and tendrils built in to hamstring it into needlessly depending on the cloud. It's not on the native local shore and it's not in the native cloud depths, but instead it's for no good reason firmly anchored in between where the shore break is constantly trying to pound it down. It's understandable when a real native cloud app like OnShape doesn't work if the network goes down**.

Fixing that doesn't even require any major changes to the software. It's already a pretty solid native app. Just change the philosophy from «F360 is a cloud app no matter what» to «F360 is the best consumer-level CAD software that takes advantage of the cloud where it makes sense». It's already inching there anyway, but coming out and saying it will guide team members to make the right decisions instead of being Lilliputians tying Gulliver down with a thousand pointless threads.

** actually now that they have the iOS apps / etc and it's not browser only, it does work offline

[kb9ydn]

Very well put @roambotics_scott.  Fusion's (over) reliance on the cloud is annoying but it's not catastrophic.  What can be catastrophic is when Fusion is made nearly unusable due to a buggy update that can't be deferred.  You can put in place all kinds of testing and other checks to try and prevent bad updates, but eventually one will get through anyway.  If Autodesk intends to keep up their pace of updates every 2-4 weeks they really need to have a beta test channel.  It is a lot more work to maintain but I think it would be worth it in terms of overall reliability.

The weird thing is that it's rare for anyone from the Fusion team to even comment on the idea of a beta channel.  It's almost like they just refuse to even talk about it.

C|

[keqingsong]

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