Awesome! Surely it will take some time for the new programmer to get up to speed with Mach3, but this is very good news.
I think Artsoft should consider 2-tier pricing for home and business licensing. As a commercial user I would gladly shell out a few more bucks for this software. Think about it:
CAD package - $1000+/license
CAM - $1000+/license
machine controller - $160/machine with free updates?
And all I need for hardware are standard stepper drivers and a BOB? Go ahead and raise the price for us, but let the hobbyist enjoy for the nominal fee. The functionality and customization that Mach3 allows deserves a higher payout from those of us that are saving $30,000+/yr/machine on machining costs when compared to outsourcing the parts. And yes, my shop does save close to or in excess of $100,000/yr with 3 CNC's - no exaggeration. This extra money could then be used to improve and stabilize Mach3, and would be more than worth it to all of us commercial users - assuming that the product does improve as a result.
So, by all means, instead of releasing Mach3 rev4, release it as Mach4 with new 2-tier pricing. I would strongly recommend to the owner of my company to upgrade all of my machines to Mach4, paying the new licensing fee, without even thinking about it.
My 2 cents.
Other commercial users, please share what you think about this. I'm sure I'm not alone on this train of thought. I want Mach to be as good as possible and am willing to pay for it. Do you agree?