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Comment by exotree | Hacker News Reader

Autodesk is most certainly used by a huge variety of businesses for a multitude of purposes. Is it the only solution? No. But the school also likely got the software at a steep discount or free, exposing you, as a student, to CAD software in general. What tools you use following that are up to you, but the school did its job in teaching you a general skill that can be applied in a variety of other programs at will.

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>What tools you use following that are up to you

For most, they're up to your employer. If everyone I interview knows AutoCAD because they all learned AutoCAD in college, I'm probably going to purchase AutoCAD. Companies provide those steep discounts to students because they want to condition you, not because it's good PR. And it's such an effective strategy that you never even have to consider that other programs exist, let alone that they could be worth your time.

Last time I worked with CAD people, solidworks was making inroads on autoCAD. It's a slow change industry.

It doesn't matter if autodesk gave it away in my opinion. As a user, you are contributing to software just by using it and talking about it, by reporting bugs, etc. In one case, all that feedback goes into making the proprietary software better, and when you get older, you are more willing to pay huge sums for it (like what apple did). In the other case, you make software better that benefits everyone, not just those that can afford 4 digit licensing fees.

Considering that, I have to agree it is unethical in this case to teach proprietary software

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