Has anyone ever tried these CAM utilities?

Ran across these handy looking apps at CNCcookbook:

www.cnccookbook.com/CCCNCSoftware.html?u...tm_campaign=PRODUCTS

I downloaded the demos. No Linux port unfortunately. The calculator software looks impressive and installed correctly, but the G code editor with conversational CNC wouldn't run. The latter uses Adobe products. After several hours of troubleshooting I gave up. The vendor charges a years subscription minimum, but after the subscription expires it still functions with a 1 horsepower spindle limit.
Has anyone used these apps and if so what are your thoughts and opinions? Are there any similar apps out there? Any Linux based apps? Thanks

MeshCAM is pretty good, I have used it a bit.
For conversational stuff, have a look at NativeCAM.
www.youtube.com/channel/UCjOe4VxKL86HyVrshTmiUBQ

Although I like Bob W's web site and all of the information contained within, I've tried his software only for a short time before uninstalling it. To me a lot of it seems way too much in the way of "Machining for Dummies". Most of the help it gives is stuff that anyone who's intelligent and been machining for a while already knows and does intuitively.

I have an issue with "Software as a Service". When I pay for software, I want the ability to use that version (or whatever) for the rest of my life - regardless of how foolish or impractical that actually is. Unfortunately the software industry is having a hard time coming out with anything that's so much greater than the last version for people to shell out money for an upgrade. They have to change their business model, and you're going to see a lot more of that into the near future.

I know we are way OT but I'm the opposite. I 'm a big fan of cloud based systems as it gives small businesses the ability to access technology or say $100 a month they could not otherwise afford if they had to spend $20k up front plus 20% annual maintenance. Plus you build in agility because you can work from anywhere and don't need to spend money on your own servers and back up systems. The move to the cloud has been likened to the move by industry from in house power generation to electricity utility companies so get used to it. But now the utilities are under pressure from solar and green energy so they are going to fall by the wayside into the future.

Thanks for sharing your insights Sparky961. I have the same opinions about Bob W, his site, and software companies creating these recurring expenses. He was eager to offer advice to get the Geditor utility to work until I voiced my opinions about Adobe bloatware being problematic and the recent news releases about adobe secretly putting spyware into their products. He tried to tell me that none of it was true and said he was going to "deactivate the trials". The Gcalcutor which doesn't use adobe installed fine but the adobe based geditor wouldn't even install. He obviously has a back door into the software and for that reason alone I would never pay good money for it. Guess I fell for his BS sales pitch that implied that he has created a magic formula for feeds and speeds calculation and that one will waste time and money and have significantly shorter tool cutter life without it. I didn't find the calculator especially useful myself either. The trig/DMS I can do on the TI emulator for my scientific calculator. The other stuff does look like CNC for dummies....

I think you are being somewhat unfair to Bob Warfield here. (And might want to consider that he might be a subscriber to these forums)