4 ms·

I actually did some scant research on this recently and found out that they have a free Delphi Community edition which seems almost identical to the Professiona

I actually did some scant research on this recently and found out that they have a free Delphi Community edition which seems almost identical to the Professional Edition, has full cross-plattform capability incl. iOS and Android, and you can even use it commercially until you made a profit of $5000 off of your apps (if I'm not mistaken). That'll probably allow 99.99% of students and hobby programmers and a good chunk of small businesses to use it free forever without ever hitting this mark and seems to me like one of the fairest schemes to use expensive software out there. It's what we always wanted 15, 20 years ago. Imagine Microsoft or SAP or whoever offered you to use their Windows Server Datacenter or ERP or even Office suite for free until you made a $5000 profit off of using their programs...

wila 7y ago
It's about ALL profit you make, not just the profit of your delphi apps. IOW, it excludes all small businesses.
- nottorp 7y ago
  And it's very well hidden. I checked their site a couple weeks ago and I didn't see it. Besides it's funny. 5000 income - 3000 delphi license leaves... not much?
  - vintagedave 7y ago
    On the main embarcadero.com website, hover over 'Free Tools' and click 'Delphi Community Edition'. You're right, it is not very visible by going to the normal Delphi page. Not sure why - I think our website folk want to push people to the trial not Community. But here's the link: https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/starter https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/starter
    - nottorp 7y ago
      Sorry, after reading about the install limits I lost all interest.
      - vintagedave 7y ago
        What install limits? I don't really understand what you're talking about, I'm afraid.
  - wila 7y ago
    Professional version is cheaper. Like 1600 and you get 1 year of support. After that you pay the yearly subscription fee to stay on support (about 400 or so). If you skip a year, you are back to the "never have been a paying customer" status. It is not cheap. Not all bad though, I do like Delphi itself, but the customer hostile attitude of the company does leave a bad aftertaste and make me want to ditch it.

wila 7y ago

It's about ALL profit you make, not just the profit of your delphi apps. IOW, it excludes all small businesses.

nottorp 7y ago
And it's very well hidden. I checked their site a couple weeks ago and I didn't see it. Besides it's funny. 5000 income - 3000 delphi license leaves... not much?
- vintagedave 7y ago
  On the main embarcadero.com website, hover over 'Free Tools' and click 'Delphi Community Edition'. You're right, it is not very visible by going to the normal Delphi page. Not sure why - I think our website folk want to push people to the trial not Community. But here's the link: https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/starter https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/starter
  - nottorp 7y ago
    Sorry, after reading about the install limits I lost all interest.
    - vintagedave 7y ago
      What install limits? I don't really understand what you're talking about, I'm afraid.
- wila 7y ago
  Professional version is cheaper. Like 1600 and you get 1 year of support. After that you pay the yearly subscription fee to stay on support (about 400 or so). If you skip a year, you are back to the "never have been a paying customer" status. It is not cheap. Not all bad though, I do like Delphi itself, but the customer hostile attitude of the company does leave a bad aftertaste and make me want to ditch it.