Don't forget that VS Express is FREE. That is, there is a "free" segment of the developer community, be they students, etc, etc, etc.
Personally I think Red Gate are making a mistake with their customers. They do have two versions of Reflector, one they market as Pro and charge $90 odd for. If the argument is they haven't been able to raise enough revenue, then they have failed to differentiate the products enough, and/or are asking too much for the pro version. They maybe more successful and seed far less ill will if they were to offer the free version as a basic with no plug-in ability (perhaps limit it to only IL, VB and C# etc), and then offer the Pro version with all the other features for a *reduced* price. The reality is they are only planning on charging for the currently free version due to their failure to market/sell their pro version. |-----Original Message----- |From: [email protected] [mailto:ozdotnet- |[email protected]] On Behalf Of David Boccabella |Sent: Friday, 4 February 2011 11:40 AM |To: 'ozDotNet' |Subject: RE: Red Gate will be charging $35 for .NET Reflector | |I've been watching my mailbox fill up with this.. well essentially whinging. | |Its not as if they decided to charge several hundred for a package which can be |pretty handy to have. The fact that they are offering a lifetime subscription for |$35 is pretty good value. And what is $35?, certainly far less than the |development environment that it works in conjunction with. | |In fact if one cost up the value of your development PC, your Visual Studio |Application, and a couple of reasonable data connections then $35 is hardly |anything. | |And I am very sure that there will be hacks and cracks around for it is the |$35 proves to be too much. | |Dave | | | |***************************************************************** |*** |David J. Boccabella |Proprietor |Anubis Systems |Phone: 0433 808 525 |Fax: 3200 0085 |Email: [email protected] | |This e-mail and it's contents is confidential to Anubis Systems. |This e-mail, any attachments, or any part of can not be reproduced without the |express written permission of Anubis Systems |***************************************************************** |*** | | |-----Original Message----- |From: [email protected] [mailto:ozdotnet- |[email protected]] |On Behalf Of David Kean |Sent: Friday, 4 February 2011 7:16 AM |To: ozDotNet |Subject: RE: Red Gate will be charging $35 for .NET Reflector | |The free one is timebombed, so yes, there won't be any free version around |(unless you grab the earlier non-timebombed versions that Lutz released ages |ago). | |-----Original Message----- |From: [email protected] [mailto:ozdotnet- |[email protected]] |On Behalf Of David Richards |Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 1:11 PM |To: ozDotNet |Subject: Re: Red Gate will be charging $35 for .NET Reflector | |I rarely used Reflector so ultimately, this doesn't bother me too much. The real |question is whether they leave a free (and obviously |older) version available. If yes then I don't really have a problem with this. |They could qualify the name of the paid version with "pro" |or something (since they already have a pro edition). In this case, they are |living up to the "we'll keep it free" statement and simply offering a new product |based on the free version. A subtle yet very important distinction. | |If, on the other hand, they remove all links to the older free version making it |difficult (never quite impossible) to get, I'd consider this very poor form and |would mentally give them a black mark and tend to avoid their business in |future and would volunteer my negative opinion to others. | |Time will tell. | |David | |"If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes | will fall like a house of cards... checkmate!" | -Zapp Brannigan, Futurama | | | | | | | |On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 22:48, Noon Silk <[email protected]> wrote: |> On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 10:43 PM, Joseph Cooney |> <[email protected]> |wrote: |>> Like many things in software development (and life) I think it's all |>> about managing expectations. By choosing the word they did in their |>> initial announcement red-gate set the expectation that there would |>> continue to be a free version of reflector in perpetuity, so some |>> people (I think |>> understandably) feel a bit put-out when they don't meet that expectation. |>> Will I buy a copy of reflector when it's released? Sure. Am I happy |>> about having to keep track of reflector license keys, and not being |>> able to assume everyone has and uses reflector? Not so much. Do I |>> look forward to having to carefully scrutinize everything red-gate |>> say in case of future back-pedaling? No. For example in their most |>> recent communique red-gate said "Version 7 will be sold as a |>> perpetual license, with no time bomb or forced updates". How should I |>> take that given their change of heart on the free version? |> |> Free can become not; perpetual can't stop being so, or else it wasn't |> in the first place. |> |> |>> Joseph |>> |>> -- |>> |>> w: http://jcooney.net |>> t: @josephcooney |> |> -- |> Noon Silk |> |> http://dnoondt.wordpress.com/ (Noon Silk) | |> http://www.mirios.com.au:8081 > |> |> Fancy a quantum lunch? |> http://www.mirios.com.au:8081/index.php?title=Quantum_Lunch |> |> "Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy - the joy |> of being this signature." |> |
