Right now I'm pretty frustrated with #Microchip .
Off and on for the last few years, I've been using its #MPLAB X IDE (integrated development environment) to develop and debug embedded software using its #microcontrollers , until recently with good results.
They pushed an update that breaks a few things.
The new version requires *a lot* of screen real estate, so I can't run it on the laptop computer I've been using. It basically needs a desktop computer with at least one giant display.
As far as I can tell, Microchip also publishes every older version of its development software for Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux platforms, but it doesn't publish what the minimum (or recommended) system requirements are for any of them.
When I contacted them asking for this, their response was almost as friendly and helpful as "screw you".
We frequently work with Microchip microcontrollers, so we were keen to try the new PICkit 5. Microchip Technology kindly sent us a sample. This was also our introduction to the latest version of their free MPLAB X software, which has several new features. by Tim Blythman