There's been A LOT of discussion about Red-Gate's decision to start charging for .NET Reflector. For those of you tuning in, here's a really compressed history:
- Lutz Roeder created .NET Reflector many years ago (full history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Reflector)
- I venture to guess that the majority of professional .NET developers use the tool.
- Red-Gate bought Reflector in 2008 (I remember because I saw Neil Davidson at the Business of Software Conference in Boston and asked him about it).
- Reflector has been free, or had a free version available for its life thusfar.
- Red-Gate announced yesterday that they'd start charging for Reflector in March with no free version available (as far as I can tell). The price that replaces "free": $35.
- Lots of people are going apeshit about a tool that used to be free no longer being free.
That brings us up to speed. For some fascinating reading, check out the Red-Gate Reflector Forum. I'm being serious here. It isn't often that you get to see so many diverse thoughts, opinions, and expressions of outrage in one place. ANY marketing person, product manager, executive, or entrepreneur would be wise to read the forum posts and comments for a mixture of warnings, lessons, and insight into the community/customer mind.
For my part, I don't have a strong opinion about whether Red-Gate is right or wrong on this matter and that's actually not what this post is about. This post (like many other posts) is about behavior and action. While I can't make Reflector free for everyone, I figure I can make it free for 10 people. I've made enough money doing development work and consulting while using Reflector that $350 seems like a reasonable price for me to pay. At the same time, I know that there are lots of folks out there doing good work that can't pay $35.
Post a comment about why you want a copy of Reflector by Sunday, Februrary 6th. I'll pick 10 and buy each a $35 license of Reflector 7 upon its release.
If Red-Gate (or anyone else) should decide to match the offer, then the freebies go up from there.
UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Red-Gate and they've offered to match with 50 licenses (I'm still paying for the first 10 so I now have a total of 60 to give away). As such, I'm extending the deadline through Friday, February 11th.
FINAL UPDATE: I was pleasantly surprised when Red Gate initially offered the additional 50 licenses, but I was blown away when I talked to them again and they offered another 50 for a total of 100. Not only that, but they said that rather than wait for V7 to be released that they are going to be giving Reflector Pro licenses (the $95 one), which will convert to the Reflector VS license when version 7 is released! I'll be emailing the folks who get a license on Saturday 2/12 and Sunday 2/13. Licenses should arrive on Monday 2/14 or Tuesday 2/15. Thanks to everyone who commented! BTW, if you missed the cutoff I see that Dan Maharry is giving away Reflector 7 licenses on his blog.
Would love to chat about this! How do we get in touch with you?
Posted by: Amir Chaudhry | February 03, 2011 at 02:36 PM
I used Reflector a lot to look into Microsoft's source code, it's faster than reading MSDN and more explanatory. Reflector is also priceless to understand how things are implemented (for example Linq). I will keep on using Reflector even if I have to pay $35 (even better if I get a license for free from you).
Posted by: Nordine | February 03, 2011 at 04:46 PM
I've used Reflector for almost the entire time I've been a .NET developer (7 years now). I've found it to be an invaluable tool for figuring out where an issue is between my code and either library or third-party code. While the source code for .NET is available, with Reflector I know that I'm looking at what the code actually IS.
Posted by: Adam Robinson | February 04, 2011 at 10:48 AM
This is very good tool. I think this is not a good move on Redgate's part. I remember a time when Reflector is competing against other .NET dissemblers. Maybe Redgate's move would revive those other other projects.
Posted by: Ong Zhixian | February 04, 2011 at 11:04 AM
Reflector is totally indispensable, and for $35 it's a bargain, but getting it for free is even better :).
Posted by: Csaba Gero | February 04, 2011 at 11:09 AM
As others have stated Reflector is a valuable developer tool and I use it ever so often. And if I where to get a licence for free I would be ever so grateful :)
Posted by: Christian Westman | February 04, 2011 at 11:14 AM
Reflector is worth $35, but it's a shame that it will no longer be free.
I feel a little uneasy about stopping existing versions from working - why not just do a final update that removes the expiry date and adds a nag screen?
Posted by: I Brown | February 04, 2011 at 11:16 AM
I'm in the same boat, I've used Lutz' Reflector since I first found it YEARS ago, I don't remember when to be honest. I remember watching him progressively release new versions and I love what you could (and still can) do with it. I was sad that he decided to stop supporting it but at least he made sure that someone else would continue to support it, and still for free no less. The fact that RedGate is now not only going to be charging a fee for the next version (v7) but are also going be time-bombing v6, it's like a slap in the face. If it's proven inviable to continue to support and improve on Reflector, I agree with the opinion that they should have passed the torch to someone else willing to continue to develop it or even open it up to the community. That's how they got it in the first place, so they should honor it's origins.
Let me be clear, I don't mind that they charge for their tools, if they had developed Reflector from the start for free and then decided they needed to charge for it, that'd be fine to me. But the fact is they didn't develop it, it was handed to them on a silver platter with a preexisting user base. I personally don't believe they have the right to charge for it. If they were really confident in the value their improvements add (which they claim to be the reason for the cost change), they wouldn't have felt the need to timebomb the previous version. To me it's a pretty sleazy way of doing business.
Personally, I think they should open the reflector project up to the community, I believe that would be the best thing for the tool. Baring that they should at least remove the timebomb on v6, and let their price of v7 speak for the improvements they have added. If they are really worth the 35$ for v7 over v6 people will still buy it, and lastly I think Lutz had better be getting a portion of that 35$ licencing fee.
Posted by: Nick A | February 04, 2011 at 11:26 AM
Did RedGate actually buy Reflector from Lutz? I remember they took over the project but didn't know that they bought it? Even the wiki article doesn't mention that.
Posted by: Nick A | February 04, 2011 at 11:32 AM
Fair play to them for providing it free for so long, but i wouldn't be leaving this comment if they were going to keep it free!
Posted by: James Randle | February 04, 2011 at 11:48 AM
Nick A: Great stuff, thanks for posting your thoughts! I have no idea what the deal with Lutz was/is, I hope he made some money off of it. Im still seeing lots of interesting posts in the forums and cant wait to see how it all turns out.
To everyone else: Thanks for commenting, please spread the word! Weve just about gone through the licenses Im buying and well be into the ones that Red-Gate donated anytime now.
Posted by: Jay Grieves | February 04, 2011 at 12:10 PM
I going to be converting a large amount old Win32 code written in Delphi over to C# and Reflector is big part of the process. I understand why Red Gate needs to charge a fair price for .NET Reflector, but I would love a free license.
Posted by: twitter.com/anotherlab | February 04, 2011 at 12:11 PM
Reflector is not only a great tool for finding bugs in 3rd party software, or quirks in Microsofts implementation that I use it on a very regular basis.
Not just that, but combined with plugins like Deblector it can even be useful for debugging strange issues on machines that simply can't be setup as a dev environment.
Posted by: Ian W | February 04, 2011 at 12:24 PM
I've been using Reflector for some time. I use it on an almost daily basis and there doesn't seem to be a competitor to it. I've heard that the new versions will have BAML support as well, which will be very usefull to me. I will miss the days that I didn't have to keep this backed up on a disk. I got so used to being able to simply download it when I needed on whichever development machine I happened to be on.
I would like very much to get one of your free copies of this product.
Posted by: Phillip Givens | February 04, 2011 at 01:04 PM
The Reflector "debacle" might be a PR issue for Red-Gate, but does any serious .NET developer not use it? I cannot count the times that I have fixed a bug or learned a cool trick or technique using it.
No matter what I will keep on using Reflector, be it that I win it (hint, hint ;-)) or purchase a copy.
Posted by: Eddie Velasquez | February 04, 2011 at 01:20 PM
It is (and always has been) a great, and possibly the most useful tool in a serious .NET developers toolbox. Well worth $35. Of course being human (a human developer - is that an t for freeoxymoron?) I would like it free, but if that doesn't happen they'll be getting my $ anyway :thumbsup
Posted by: Dave Meadowcroft | February 04, 2011 at 01:40 PM
This damn laptop keyboard seems to move the cursor around for fun when I'm typing hence the gibberish above! Apologies
Posted by: Dave Meadowcroft | February 04, 2011 at 01:43 PM
All,
I can't say that I am grabbing for my pitch fork - redgate bought this tool, improved upon it and happen to owe us nothing.
It has certainly gotten me out of a number of scrapes (Ildasm anyone?), and $35 is priced very modestly.
Saying that, I wouldn't say no to a free license!
Thanks,
Jon
Posted by: Jon Bates | February 04, 2011 at 02:08 PM
I'm a .net developer for 5 or 6 years now, and as i'm currently learning to use WPF, i can't imagine the most useful free .net tool ever being now 35$. It's not very expensive, but the fact it's free always have made the tool even simpler to use. If you want me to learn correctly WPF, you'll give me a license :p
Thanks !
Posted by: jbriguet | February 04, 2011 at 02:10 PM
When RedGate took over Reflector from Lutz I discussed it with others in the community and the clear consensus was that it would end up as a paid-for product. My major concern is how often will you need to pony up? I know that v7 will have a perpetual licence but I'm guessing the v8 will require another payment and so on.
Posted by: Alan Dean | February 04, 2011 at 02:32 PM