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« on: March 19, 2019, 02:48:28 PM »
Regarding Acorn:
I recently set up an Acorn based system for a friend. The setup was more straight-forward since hardware and software are well integrated. The user interface was was very polished and easy to use. The documentation was very complete. Whether or not it is the better choice depends on the user. For those who want to tweak, modify, and tailor their system to work exactly the way they want it to, and are willing do the extra work, Mach4 is the better choice. Those who are willing to accept the functions and workflow of the machine more-or-less as-is, and would rather get straight to cutting rather than configuring, Acorn might be the better choice.
That said, despite terrific support from Centroid, my friend was not able to get his system running (thus my involvement). More straight-forward does not mean it is easy.
On an aside: One of the things that happened when I transitioned from Mach 3 to Mach 4 was that I had to learn more about how everything works. In the end I am happy that this led me to a much better understanding of how things happen "under the hood" which has been immensely helpful in all aspects of the work.