Comments on: Komodo IDE is really expensive

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 07:39:56 +0000

Wow, another sad day - I really liked Komodo, but $245 is just too much for my taste..looks like it’s back to IDLE…. to all the ‘hobby’ programmers out there: Looks like we’re going to have to ‘hobby’ our own editor…..but look at the bright side, Komodo has already taught us what features people really like :)

By: John

John — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 02:39:49 +0000

Hi Daniele, thanks for the comment.

I think to be fair to ActiveState, they new Komodo IDE 4.0 does add many more features to the mix. So I’m not sure you can really call it the “same product” at a higher price.

That said, I do agree that the hobby programmer and/or non-profit coder does seem to get left out of the demographic studies. I still think that adding even the most basic debugger to Komodo Edit would make everyone happy, and not eat into the Komodo IDE 4.0 profits.

But what do I know? Apparently not much… :)

By: Daniele Mezzetti

Daniele Mezzetti — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:25:45 +0000

I thought: thirty dollars for the personal edition is low enough to be considered fair toward the OS community. Good guys, I thought. Then I saw a whopping $145 upgrade price, and it sounded strange. Wasn’t I the same user as before? Wasn’t this the same product as before? Hmmm.

But commercial models change, and it’s the same old story over and over, it happens usually at a loss for the end user. This is particularly difficult to accept when the product has built upon OS software. This time we lost the debugger, what next? the highlighter? the keyboard?

Let me say another thing. I wonder why on company-related posts (not only in this case, this is a very common behaviour) I continue to see this strange dichotomy that divides the users in just two categories: “enterprise” (implying they don’t mind the money, because they will recover it somehow) and “students” (implying that they will one day cease this silly state and become an enterprise). Not being in one of these two classes I feel a bit unsupported: I don’t exist. Being for example a volunteer in a non-profit organization or just the administrator of a personal site - maybe a good one, that helps real people - is nothing.
Hmmm.

By: Matt Herdon

Matt Herdon — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 23:10:41 +0000

nope, it’s a free editor and we want it to stay that way!
-Matt (product manager, Komodo)

By: Shane Caraveo

Shane Caraveo — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:44:06 +0000

Hi everyone,
I thought I would try and clarify a little bit what we have done.

This is all part of our world domination plan.

But on the serious side…Komodo Edit is a free, commercially usable replacement for Komodo Personal. While it does not include some features that Personal had, it also does not have the license restrictions that Personal had. Komodo Personal was licensed under a non-commercial usage only license and was meant for educational and learning purposes, whereas Edit allows commercial usage.

Komodo IDE is the same as it ever was, with the addition of new features of course. We also have educational licensing for Komodo IDE so that we can continue to support learning institutions and students with a professional grade IDE.

Regards,
Shane Caraveo
Komodo Tech Lead

By: JeffG

JeffG — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:41:55 +0000

Hi guys, thanks for your comments. To be clear, Komodo Edit 4.0 will be free for any type of use for the foreseeable future. We felt by having a free, extensible, editor-focused product with no license restrictions was a better story than charging $30 for a product but limiting users to non-commercial use as was the case with Komodo Personal. Essentially, we decided to differentiate between Edit and IDE based on features alone.

By: Nathan Powell

Nathan Powell — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 11:17:41 +0000

Until they decide that enough people need it…then they will charge

By: John

John — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 05:28:37 +0000

Well, to be fair to ActiveState… Komodo Edit does appear to be free at least for the time being. It is only the full IDE (including the debugger and such) that has gone from $35 to $245.

So as far as Vim goes… ActiveState’s editor is free too.

By: Nathan Powell

Nathan Powell — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:10:47 +0000

there is lies the problem with proprietary software. I don’t have objections to programmers making a living. But the whole bait and switch problem is nuts. Let’s practically give this away till people need it to be productive and then we’ll really stick it to them. Hence the 400%+ markup.

Vim, free now, free tomorrow, free next week.