Ovyron wrote: ↑Wed Jul 06, 2022 3:24 pm
No, the answer isn't clear at all. Stockfish has been much better than anything chessbase sells for a long, long while, since the times Stockfish passed Rybka 4. And people still buy chessbase products.
I bought ChessBase products in the past, when Fritz was actually still Fritz, by Frans Morsch. (My last version is Deep Fritz 13, but I run it under the Fritz 11 GUI.) I also have the last ChessBase version that doesn't require activation (and could be updated by just downloading an executable with the update; 10, or 11; I'll have to look it up). Fortunately Fritz 11 and ChessBase run fine in Wine.
Since Chessbase started with the cloud nonsense and over-the-top activations, and the retirement of Frans Morsch, I've just not upgraded anymore. The GUI's do what I need them to do, and if I want a stronger engine than Deep Fritz 13, there are plenty available.
It's a pity that there just aren't any other products, especially with regard to databases, that have ChessBase's capabilities.