A good friend of mine is interested in doing some Delphi programming for personal projects. Unfortunately he has no way of using the latest release of Delphi without spending money on a new user license. On the contrary, the hobbyist programmer who wishes to learn C# can download and use Microsoft’s Visual C# Express free of charge.
I’m always talking up the benefits of Delphi to my friends and I’m constantly telling other developers to give it a try. But the sad reality is that those interested in looking at Delphi for the first time or the hobbyist slash student who wants to use Delphi for personal projects and to learn cannot without spending lots of dollars for a new user license.
Get a clue Borland! Make a Personal Edition free for those programmers who wish to learn more about Delphi or use it for personal projects. And make it downloadable from your web site. You will have more Delphi customers in the long run if you do.
As for my friend, Borland has just lost a potential customer by not providing a freeware version Delphi.
Update: Seems I’m not the only one talking about the lack of a Personal Edition or trial version of Delphi. What about Delphi 2006 Trial and Personal?
Posted in programming. Tagged in delphi.
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