? ?"Who own the right of LTspice ? company or Mike the author ?"

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When you click Help -> About LTspiceIV, you will see that Linear Technology owns the copyright of LTspice, and Mike is the Author.? I would also guess that LTC owns the product, just like all the ICs their employees have designed.

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Like most products, if an employee leaves a company, the things they designed for the company, remain the property of the company.? Otherwise, a lot of products would mysteriously disappear from a company's product line, when its designer(s) happened to switch jobs.? That generally doesn't happen.

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? ?"If so, the support of LTspice might be not so much."

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Remember that LTspice is supported not only by Mike.

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? ?"If Mike leaves...nothing stopping him from

developing a new "LTspice compatible"

? ? version of simulation software..."

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Well, that's where it gets a lot less clear.? There may be things stopping that.

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Many companies, especially in the technology sector, have non-compete provisions, which deny a former employee from developing a new version of their old product for a period of time, and/or developing the same product elsewhere.? For him to come up with a new LTspice-like simulator, either it would have to be significantly different (no code or algorithms he developed while at LTC), or it would have to be with ADI's permission to take it with him -- essentially a spin-off?

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Regardless, all this is meaningless speculation.? We have no reason to believe that ADI would not continue to support LTspice, nor that Mike would leave.

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Regards,

Andy

(also not an employee of either Linear Technology or Analog Devices)

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