Free activeperl for free#

This is similar to the licensing model JetBrains uses for their excellent IDEs: It also gives away licenses for open-source contributors. except when it doesn't: It turns out that if you contribute to an open-source project, you can get Komodo IDE entirely for free. This is a $295 IDE with some seriously cool features like pair-programming (work on the same piece of code with another coder, at the same time, using two computers), powerful debugging, and more. Komodo itself is open-source, which is a boon for anyone trying to build a third-party editor based on Firefox.īut that's not the only thing: Komodo Edit has a big brother called Komodo IDE. That's not the only reason Google came to mind: While Komodo is Firefox-based and ActiveState does lots of work with Mozilla, Yaara could not help but notice that ActiveState's engineers all used Chrome to demonstrate their work during the meeting:Īll of this is not to say that ActiveState doesn't care about free software, or just uses it for its own means.

Free activeperl for free#

Free just works for some things (such as word of mouth).Īnother compnay that's very pragmatic about giving away stuff for free is Google, which provides a ton of free products and services to keep as many eyeballs on their pages (and ads) as possible. So while Mozilla, upon which Komodo is based, is very ideological about being free, ActiveState is more pragmatic about it. In other words, it's a practical choice - it just makes business sense. When I asked Toph Whitmore about this, he referred to giving away products for free as sort of a stepping stone.

I can tell you I would not be writing this piece if Komdodo Edit wasn't being offered for free, for example. ActiveState makes a point of attending lots of industry events, and combined with free products, this means people talk about the company. Talking to Mike Kanasoot, Komodo's Marketing Manager, I got the impression that it's about community involvement.