Newly acquired CadSoft (EAGLE) will continue to have a free version, here’s what they posted up in our comments section… Alistair Winning writes –

Hi guys, Firstly I’m a Premier Farnell employee. I can say there are no plans to stop the EAGLE free version. In fact it’s been available to download from our element14 community site for over a month now http://www.element-14.com/community/docs/DOC-13200. There will be quite close integration with element14, and video tutorials posted for new users. Element14 could also be used to collaberate on designs. The two founders of the company will still be here for a period of time to help, and we are genuinely looking for feedback and comments from engineers to make CadSoft a better product. Any ideas, suggestions or other feedback can be posted here http://www.element-14.com/community/thread/1644 to talk to the guys behind the deal. Believe me, it’s in Farnell’s interest to have a better product with more users