Does raining data have an evaluation or developer version of D3? Does
anyone have it?

Ed Clark wrote:

Call Sales
http://www.rainingdata.com/company/c...tactsales.html

Patrick, <;=)

Ed Clark <edclark (AT) cris (DOT) com> wrote:
A developer version is available to registered VARs and Consultants
for $500 per year. That has 10 users, full support, all updates,
FlashCONNECT, and other tools for a complete development system. This
is the package I use for D3NT and D3Linux. If you have a business
application to port to D3 which you want to sell as a VAR, RD has a
form on their site which you can fill out, after which you can get a
free developer version ($500 waived) for one year for any/all RD DBMS
platforms available. Please check with RD to confirm details.

For Demos to end-user prospects, RD provides a free activation with a
non-renewable termination date. This activation lasts for 2 weeks or
1 month, I don't recall. The purpose of the Demo is to give your
working app to a prospect or sales person, and run it like a full app
so that people can see your stuff and make their business decisions,
but it only runs for a very limited trial time. Compare this to the
Developer license that lasts one year and is renewable.

I'm sure people will once again have something to say about the
policies, but I hope this answers your basic questions. Again, check
with RD Sales for details.

HTH
T

The absence of a free personal edition / evaluation version of D3 is a
great detriment when training their users. When I give UniData and
UniVerse courses, the availability of the free personal edition is most
attractive and allows trainees to practice on their own machines at
home, but on D3, zilch. When I approached RainingData here in the UK,
they gave me the sales stuff that Tony has just documented. Even when
I played the evangelical card, saying how the free edition would enable
me to keep up-to-date on the D3 stuff on my MBPublish and MBTexts
websites, there was still no movement beyond the educational discount.

I have a lovely story of how, way back when, Dick Pick gave me a number
of free copies of R83 Pick to readers of a series of articles on Pick
which I was writing for a university publication ... but I'll leave
that to my memoirs.

Malcolm Bull

Malcolm - I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment, I've advocated
the same here before, and I was an advocate of the same at PS/RD for
many years. That said - in the real world do free licenses truly
increase the number of commercial users? Again, and I want this to be
perfectly clear, I personally "believe" that free software "should"
create a broader market for commercial software. But in all of the
time that we've been doing this Pick thing I have yet to see evidence
that free DBMS software has actually benefitted the companies that
provide it or the market at large. Somehow the theory doesn't match
up to the reality (no pun intended), so what's the real motivation to
a profit-oriented company for providing free software? Especially in
our market where many of the applications are 1-3 user systems anyway,
and we know danged well that much of the free demo/personal software
that goes out is being used commercially.

Before the flames start, I'm just having a little friday afternoon fun
playing devil's advocate.

This big carrot that dangles in front of software vendors is never
quite attainable - give me a free developer license and I'll sell 1000
copies next year for you. That never really seems to happen. Many of
us have made that deal on either side of the table, sometimes with
success, other times not, and our appreciation for it really depends
on how many times we've been burned in the past. How about this for a
deal: Here's free software in return for a signed check for the
license fee, which will be cashed next year if there are no sales.
Now who wants to play?

I can provide a simple scenario to support free developer software
too: as more developers are 'enabled' in the market, there are more
products and services to support the marketplace, and that creates
more market stability for users who actually do buy the software.
It's a good idea, but unfortunately most VARs that sell their apps
don't expose their end-users to this market of ours anyway, and many
end-users never know that there is a world of products and services
available to them. So maybe there is more to this agreement?
"I _insert_VAR_name_here, agree to make my users aware of the
wide variety of third-party offerings in the MV industry so that they
can buy tools to add value to their systems and so that they know that
if I get hit by the proverbial bus that they are still safe in their
purchase decision."
Hmm, maybe we need another agreement for individuals:
"I _insert_developer's_name_here agree to market my products
and services to a wide audience. I further agree to advocate and
support the companies who have generously provided me with free
software so that I can earn a living, and will advertise their name
along with my own in all marketing materials."

And while some people can blame RD for not providing D3 free to
developers (heck I'll be first in line) we can also look at what that
policy has or has not done for U2 and jBASE. Are there any new
schools teaching Universe or jBASE because there are free/personal
versions of those platforms available? Have any companies adopted MV
because they learned about it in school or because some 14 year old
jBASE user showed it to his CEO/CTO mom? How many of you are racing
to support OpenQM? Yes, for those of us who like working with D3, we
want our platform of choice to be free, but when we try to take this
personal desire and make a business case out of it, it sort of falls
apart. What's the real motivation at all for a company like RD to
provide free licenses? Answer that question in terms that a bean
counter appreciates and I'm sure you'll get the licenses.

OK, have I ticked off enough people yet?
Like I said, just having a little fun, but as you can see, the concept
of free licenses goes a little deeper than just the good ideas, good
intentions, and good will that we all think about.

T

MBTraining (AT) aol (DOT) com wrote:

Has anyone pointed out that D3 will run in single user mode without any
activation?

I certainly won't.

A lot of D3-specific functions won't work, and you probably can't even
install patches, but yes, it does run in a sort of dumbed-down R83
mode. I wouldn't recommend that though - the limited experience might
turn people off more than help them to understand the environment.

douglas (AT) pickteam (DOT) com wrote:

As Tony asks: "In the real world do free licenses truly increase the
number of commercial users?" Perhaps so. A free version for use at
the office and at home would certainly increase the ability and the
competence and possibly the product loyalty of the users, it might even
attract further users - admittedly, they might be of the geeky
persuasion, but a user is a user!

Malcolm Bull

While with Raining Data I heard an interesting story about one of our
illustrious VARs in Brazil. They had sold a D3 system to a major bank and
told them that they would have to call RD every two weeks for a new
activation code 'for security'. In fact, they'd sold them their developers
copy and was just having it re-upped.

So, in this case at least, free licenses did increase the number of users,
the money just went to the wrong place.

Mark Brown


<MBTraining (AT) aol (DOT) com> wrote

Malcolm, I'm trying to get a little deeper than the "perhaps so" and
"might attract further users" theory. Despite our reasoning it seems
the marketing doesn't behave as we expect. Free licenses don't in
fact seem to enrich the market. So what's the point?

Your note below does present another interesting twist on the model:
free home versions for companies who have already purchased a copy for
the office.

I hope this is coming through properly, I don't like the way things
are but it's hard to fight with it unless there is some real ammo.

T

MBTraining (AT) aol (DOT) com wrote: