[DUG] A change in upgrade policy coming from Embarcadero

[Jolyon Smith]

A sliding scale on the face of it appears "fairer", but when assessing
"fairness" it's also worth considering that someone still using Delphi 1 (to
take an EXTREME and ridiculous example) has not only not paid for Delphi
2-2009, but has also not enjoyed or benefited from Delphi 2-2009 either.

That's the additional "price" they paid for NOT upgrading.

And there will undoubtedly be additional costs in managing an upgrade policy
that differentiates between different types/loyalties of customer.

Surely much easier to take a "No Nonsense" approach.  Once a customer always
a customer and glad to have you on-board, no matter when you last spent
money with us.

Turning a customer away - explicitly or by disincentive - just because they
haven't spent any money with you *recently* is just petty.

Now certainly we can point to any number of other companies that don't offer
various upgrade pricing schemes, the question is, is what's right for a
XYX-Other product also right for Delphi?


In this case, I simply don't see how it can be a commercially realistic
business attitude - the people you are turning away are those people least
likely to spend money with you already (by definition, because they haven't
been upgrading and since that was their choice, there were probably good
reasons, OTHER than simple cost).

Those already spending have already spent.  All you are doing is making it
even *less* likely that those already *least* likely to spend with you will
choose to do so again.

But as I've pointed out before.... this is not really an issue for those
using Delphi for commercial gain where the costs are relatively trivial
compared to the rewards.  My concern is for the hobbyist/community developer
that arguably has always been the backbone of the Delphi "market".

Just look at the amount of community code now present in the editions we are
all being asked to pay through the nose for.... FastCode, FastMM4,
DevExtensions, DelphiSpeedUp, PNG support and no end of improvements
*inspired* no doubt by community improvements in GExperts etc.

All these things were developed and made available for free then poached,
<cough> I mean " acquired for the greater good of the community" by
Borland/CodeGear/Embarcadero, but now we're told that it's entirely
reasonable for them to charge TOP $ and we should just "suck it up".

After taking so much from the Community is it really unreasonable to ask
that a little consideration be given to that community (and I don't just
mean in the form of compensating those individuals whos work is selected to
make it into the product, but rather in terms of fostering that community
further and encouraging *others* to make such equally valuable
contributions, even if they perhaps aren't in a position to be billing well
heeled customers by the hour to fund their Delphi habit.

Borland were roundly criticized for turning their back on the "community
developer", but lest we forget, it was Borland that (eventually) resurrected
the "Turbo Explorer" FREE editions.

Embarcadero need to address the huge gap at the bottom of their SKU ladder.

A Pro Edition that costs as much for a new license as a not-awful second
hand car is NOT a viable proposition for a community developer, and neither
are upgrade prices that cost as much as a half-decent, brand new PC.

The Turbo's need to come back.  And quickly.


And I mean proper "Turbo's", with sensible limits.  Disallowing the
installation of components is dumb, when a great deal of community activity
is *creating* components.

But equally supporting extensive refactoring and modeling and SCM
integrations is dumb since these are the things that are of most value to
someone who's "time is money".

There should also be no restrictions on use, OR a Community Edition which is
entirely free but which prohibits use for commercial gain, with a license
upgrade to permit the use for commercial gain, without unlocking any
additional functionality (or perhaps removing some watermarking, for
example).

Watermarking may be the way to go actually.

Digitally signing any compilation products produced using the free edition
and rejecting **those** binaries if you attempt to install them in the IDE.

i.e. you HAVE to distribute source code if you create anything you wish to
share, using the Community Edition.


Now there's an idea.


Having spewed/brain-dumped this lot into this email I'm now going to
cannibalise a lot of this for a blog post I think, so apologies for any déjà
vue you might experience thru Delphi Feeds later.

:)