Free IDEA variant?
Just as an idea. Is it possible to create a "simple" and free version of idea? Maybe it'll help to spread IDEA more and give an alternative to people who do not download IDEA just because it cost "lots of money"?
It can be without JEE capabilities, GUI editor, intentions, etc... Just good Java (only) editor + demonstration of IDEA strong points.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Alexander Babaev wrote:
EAP is free :)
Not that I think it's a bad idea, but it's worth noting that such a "free" version would have to be unextensible. Most of the stuff you list is now implemented as a plugin, and some of it even open-source. If one could simply copy freely available plugins into a freely available version of IDEA, it suddenly becomes a lot less sensible to pay a license fee.
--Dave Griffith
Hello Dave,
DG> Not that I think it's a bad idea, but it's worth noting that such a
DG> "free" version would have to be unextensible. Most of the stuff you
DG> list is now implemented as a plugin, and some of it even
DG> open-source. If one could simply copy freely available plugins into
DG> a freely available version of IDEA, it suddenly becomes a lot less
DG> sensible to pay a license fee.
Hmm, they could try to make the free version not accept the intellij provided
plugins (now that the plugins can be disabled they'd just have to make sure
those could not be enabled). Of course people could go and hack different
versions of those plugins, but I doubt any would bother, the effort wouldn't
be worth the few hundred bucks one would have to part with when paying for
a license (and those who would are probably using generated keys anyway...).
Andrei
as far as i'm concerned, unly "hobby" developper would not invest what it takes to buy an IDEA license;
As a professional, i'm ready (and i do) to pay it from my own pocket for the pleasure it gives me while working
Hello Thibaut,
T> as far as i'm concerned, unly "hobby" developper would not invest
T> what it takes to buy an IDEA license;
T>
T> As a professional, i'm ready (and i do) to pay it from my own pocket
T> for the pleasure it gives me while working
Fully agree. It's just that I heard way too many times the "cheap" argument
of someone preferring eclipse because it's free (not counting that one would
have to spend some money on the plugins in order to get it in a reasonable
shape for j2ee/web development and such).
I think a light free version of IDEA would, at least, finish that debate
and would give the tight walletted developers a chance to get addicted to
the increased levels of dopamine associated with using IDEA.
Andrei
Really, it was just a thought that came into my tired mind. It may work or it may not. But "I would NOT use IDEA because it's NOT free" — is a very common thing.
you are right, but would you not use car because it is not free ? ;)
Providing a free CAN give access to some markets (students, hobby programmers, open source projects), but most of us that do computers for a living (should) know better than to always look for "free" (as not paid).
note : IDEA has already a programm for free licenses for open source development AFAIK
Ok. It was a bad idea. :)
(I myself use OpenSource license… And it helps a lot!)
How about making previous versions free? Not the most recent but maybe 2 versions back.
Ie, 6 is the current version so make IntelliJ version 4 free.
Although it won't have all the latest features such as interpretation of JSF faces-config, etc etc, it still has the core features that make IntelliJ so good - ie a fantastic awesomely-smart code editor! So provide that for free. People will be less hesitant to try it out because it's just another free IDE for them to try out. And then they'll get hooked!
I completely agree with you. Unfortunately, the reality is different.
Eclipse IS used in much companies, because it is FREE. The "because it is
Open Source" argument only counts for the "Open Source == it's free for all
time" assumption. The effort to fix bugs in Eclipse (or any other
non-trivial application), especially when there also is the need to keep up
with the ongoing official Eclipse improvements, is much higher than the
price to pay for IDEA.
In Germany there was a marketing campaign since a few years: "Geiz ist geil"
("miserliness is terrific"). It seems also valid for a large part of
German's Java developers. Otherwise the Eclipse/Netbeans hype, esp. in
German Java magazines, is hard to explain.
Good idea! Even the old IDEA versions are in many respects better than the latest versions of Eclipse/NetBeans, so new developers could get a taste of it, after which they could be more willing to pay for the features of the latest IDEA versions. IIRC, IDEA 4 was the first version to support Java 5 generics, so it's the oldest version which is still useful.
+1 for releasing IDEA 4.5.4 as freeware. :)
PS: The old versions can still be downloaded if you know the file name or version number (for example http://download.jetbrains.com/idea/idea-4.5.4.exe) but is there any page on the JetBrains site which contains direct links to all old versions?
Excellent IDEA!
+1
I think some people still use IDEA 4 because it's faster than the newer versions (http://www.intellij.net/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=268346&tstart=0#5192115).
Well I think from Jetbrains point of view they need to consider whether or not their paying customers would just use the free version. I'm not currently a paying customer but I would definitely pay the price for a personal license for the next version because I want the latest languages (groovy, Scala, Javascript, HTML) support and frameworks (Hibernate, Grails, JSF, Struts).
What do you think? Would it increase their number of paying customers?
Esko Luontola wrote:
Right, a colleague of mine denies switching to IDEA 5/6/7/8/9 and so on
- he stuck with IDEA 4 - it gives him everything he needs and works
pretty fast.
Many, maybe most.
No, it would greatly decrease it.
People buy IntelliJ because it's worth the money over Eclipse or Notbeans.
It's not worth the money over IntelliJ to most of them (few people are willing to front money that may go towards a possible future release that they may want).
same all over the world.
Company I work now is the first I've ever seen (in a decade in the industry, half of that in consultancy, about a dozen companies from the inside) that there was any money at all available for development tools.
Usually you're either assumed to pay for your own or you're told to use XXX which is usually either some free tool or pirated (clearly and openly so, the license keys are unmistakable).
Actually I think that question could be easily answered by JB by looking into their number of upgrades. Those are folks who have an older version and pay for the newer version. I have no idea what percentage of users upgrade but I bet JB knows.