many cad/cam products follow the same license scheme except it's usually 1 license per computer . $200 for 5 machines seems pretty reasonable . Art simply made a $25 plugin for the new software that newfangled is creating . Not any different than any other paid plugins or screen sets . Art did a fantastic job of supporting mach 3 , and as already mentioned he revolutionized the hobby . If it wasn't for mach then I highly doubt that the hobby would be anywhere near as big as it is . EMC2 is also responsible at the same time but the fear of running linux kept a lot of people from venturing down that path .
Newfangled dropped the ball , and it's outright stupid what they are doing . People have been waiting far too long , and they should never have announced it's creation so soon . New companies are stepping all over them right now and they're going to be left in the dust if the don't get it together soon . Plus why buy mach 3 since it's unsupported and no longer being fixed or supported , by right they should be charging 1/2 price for a dead software or offer an upgrade price to mach 4 once its complete
Personally I can handle the wait . I've got 4 mills set up with mach 3 and they are putting out loads of product per week without issue . I don't use probes , pendants or any other gadget that could interfere with my pc and everything is straight out of the pp . Once the new version is complete and safe then I'll probably migrate , otherwise if or when the time comes I'll get back into linuxcnc since it's much better than the alternatives