Red Gate has announced that .NET Reflector will no longer be free at the end of February 2011. According to an open letter by Neil Davidson, Red Gate’s co-CEO:
”Red Gate has announced that it will charge $35 for version 7 of .NET Reflector upon its release in early March. Version 7 will be sold as a perpetual license, with no time bomb or forced updates.
As many of you know, our original intention was to maintain .NET Reflector as a free tool. But, after two-and-a-half years of providing it without charge, we realized that we could not make the free model work. We know that this will cause pain for some people in the .NET community, and we apologize for the change in policy.
As a commercial company, we need to charge at least a nominal amount to keep .NET Reflector up-to-date and relevant. Without revenue coming in, we cannot dedicate a team of developers to ensure that Reflector remains a valuable part of .NET developers’ toolboxes.”
There is nothing wrong with a commercial business trying to make money. That’s the whole point of being a for-profit company. But this move does represent a betrayal of the original vision of .NET Reflector’s creator, Lutz Roeder:
“Red Gate will continue to provide the free community version and is looking for your feedback and ideas for future versions.”
In an ideal world, Red Gate would honor Roeder’s vision and forever maintain a free community version. But Roeder sold away his rights, and Red Gate has to make money to remain in business. All things considered, a one-time $35 fee is not that expensive for such a useful tool, so I will become a paying customer.
There is always a little sting when a free product or website goes commercial. But if the .NET community has a problem with it, then we need to build and release our own open-source reflector.
Article published on February 4, 2011
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February 4th, 2011 at 10:26 am
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February 6th, 2011 at 8:41 am
[…] .NET Reflector No Longer Free […]
February 7th, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Charging for v7 is fine, but deleting v6 to force users to upgrade is nothing short of extortion.
February 15th, 2011 at 3:11 am
[…] 原文：https://www.devtopics.com/net-reflector-no-longer-free/ […]
February 17th, 2011 at 11:16 am
Ask and ye shall receive. ILSpy is an open-source .NET assembly browser and decompiler. Development started after Red Gate announced that .NET Reflector would no longer be free at the end of February 2011.
http://www.dot-net-news.com/ilspy-net-assembly-browser-and-decompiler/
February 18th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
[…] 原文：https://www.devtopics.com/net-reflector-no-longer-free/ […]
March 1st, 2011 at 2:44 pm
GrayWolf is a tool targeted at filling the void left by Red-Gate.
Currently it gets you into code much like Reflector
It goes farther. incorporating the ability to change the target’s IL (like reflexil add on)…..
This tool is just a stepping stone to what is in the works:)
you can get this program from http://www.DigitalbodyGuard.com
March 23rd, 2011 at 10:23 pm
When I ran the “free” version that I already had, and it told me there was a newer version available and do I want to get it, I said “no”… so… IT DELETED MY FRIGGIN VERSION 5 EXECUTABLE!!!!!
If I don’t want to upgrade, that does NOT mean I am okay with you deleting something I already have. Even if I said “yes”, I would not be okay with deleting my free version before you tell me the upgrade is not free. I didn’t have a “trial” version, I had a “free” version… so… whatever.
I will NOT be dealing with Redgate ever again, and I hope they go out of business.
March 31st, 2011 at 8:44 am
We’ve had Watergate.
We’ve had Nipplegate.
Now we have Redgate.
It is a scandal that users who downloaded the ‘free’ with the explicit commitment that it would remain free have now the choice to either pay up, or lose the tool. This is extortion.
To offer the tool for free for so many years was a great contribution to the .net community, but also ensured that no competing products entered the market. Redgate are now brazenly abusing the position so gained to milk existing users for cash.
No one objects to version 7 and beyond costing something, and 35 dollars is well worth it for an excellent tool. However, I strongly encourage Redgate to reverse their policy of extortion, allow version 6 to remain free, remove the ‘forced update’ policy, and motivate people to pay willingly for version 7 and above by virtue of product enhancements.
Otherwise Redgate will really go down in history as another ‘-gate’.
May 26th, 2011 at 6:56 am
Am I the only one who misunderstood the meaning of ‘Free’?
June 6th, 2011 at 11:26 am
losers…
Change your system date before you launch reflector, then change it back 🙂
F-U RED GATE!