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MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business

mackichan.com

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Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business

#4

Post by airbreather »

madengr wrote: post #2

This trend is accelerating; small, one person companies founded near the beginning of personal computing are shutting down. Others that come to mind are MicroCAP for SPICE simulation, WRCAD for IC layout.

Is it due to the market, or the owners are retiring/giving up?

Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business

#5

Post by madengr »

airbreather wrote: post #4
madengr wrote: post #2

This trend is accelerating; small, one person companies founded near the beginning of personal computing are shutting down. Others that come to mind are MicroCAP for SPICE simulation, WRCAD for IC layout.

Is it due to the market, or the owners are retiring/giving up?

The latter. Profitable enough to make a living from, but not profitable enough (in these days) to be purchased and sustained.

Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business

#6

Post by Waterluvian »

airbreather wrote: post #4
madengr wrote: post #2

This trend is accelerating; small, one person companies founded near the beginning of personal computing are shutting down. Others that come to mind are MicroCAP for SPICE simulation, WRCAD for IC layout.

Is it due to the market, or the owners are retiring/giving up?

First we need to understand if there is a trend and if it is accelerating.

If so, it feels like “retirement” is a good first guess at why.

Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business

#7

Post by codebolt »

Wow, very sad to hear this. My high school ran a trial project back in 2000 and my class became the first in my country where every student received a laptop to use in all classes. We used Scientific Notebook for math. Being able to solve any equation and draw any graph with the click of a button was a huge boost in my ability to grasp trig, polynomials, logarithms, etc.

I actually went from D-level math student pre-HS to graduating HS with an A+ and went on to get a degree in physics+math at uni. I honestly doubt if that would've been possible if not for SN.

Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business

#9

Post by TheFreim »

airbreather wrote: post #4
madengr wrote: post #2

This trend is accelerating; small, one person companies founded near the beginning of personal computing are shutting down. Others that come to mind are MicroCAP for SPICE simulation, WRCAD for IC layout.

Is it due to the market, or the owners are retiring/giving up?

> small, one person companies founded near the beginning of personal computing are shutting down.

It could also be that they didn't appropriately expand, or expanded too much.

Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business

#10

Post by asah »

Waterluvian wrote: post #6
airbreather wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it due to the market, or the owners are retiring/giving up?

First we need to understand if there is a trend and if it is accelerating. If so, it feels like “retirement” is a good first guess at why.

why not sell the business? too much hassle to operate? someone surely would want it...
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