The ugly side of commercial software

Warning bells started to ring when Red Gate purchased .NET reflector. Why would a commercial organisation want to purchase a free tool?

Well the FAQ spells it all out. Ka Ching! The current "free" version of .NET Reflector 6.6 will EXPIRE May 30, 2011. The only option is to go to V7 which is a $35 perpetual license (until they decide to expire that one as well).

The best question and the poorest justification comes under the heading "Aren't you beaking a promise you made when you purchased .NET Reflector?". On no we didn't promise, but simply stated that was our intention.

I would not be surprised to find that .NET Reflector 6.7 does not contain a time bomb. And there is a certain life span for .NET Reflector anyway. When Microsoft releases .NET 6 or which ever number they pull out of the hat for the next version, .NET reflector will not be able to inspect assemblies of this version and beyond.

Way to go Red Gate - how not to do it!

There is the commercial side of things too. You can't expect people to do everything for free and they have to pay staff who work on the product. Again from the FAQ regarding an open source option, "This was one of the options we investigated, but it didn't make sense for us as a commercial company." Nice wording from the company sales and marketing goons, but if it doesn't make sense, then give it back to the community.