Saddening News

[keevey]

Very sad to see the end of the free personal and on demand licenses for non commercial use. 

Should we expect a similar replacement licensing structure to support developers?

Pursuant to section 9.1 of the 32bit Non Commercial Use Agreement, KX is permitted to change the terms of the 32bit Non Commercial Use Agreement. KX hereby provides notice that the 32bit Non Commercial Use Agreement that you may have accepted previously is terminated as of 13th of May 2022. Pursuant to the 32bit Non Commercial Use Agreement you are required to destroy all copies of the 32 Bit Kdb+ Software in your possession.

[Anand_Kulkarni_]

This will severely jeopardize the induction of any new young developers into the kdb+ community given everybody may not have access to commercial premises to learn and experiment on. Earlier 32 bit and off late 64 bit on demand were very useful for course refreshments, newbies in technology, and helping junior members (staff of the team) pick up skills by learning over at home as well. 

[DBaker]

Hi Keevey,
I wanted to take the time to personally respond to your post.

At KX we are extremely proud of our developer community and continually looking at ways in which we can support and nurture. Our decision to remove self-serve downloads and replace through a trial request process, enables our teams to support new users through evaluation and learning.

If you would like to contact the team, they can be reached at  trial@kx.com

We are also looking at new modalities to consume our record-breaking technology, such as the KX Insights Platform which will be launching shortly. In the meantime, developers have access to the KX Academy, where they can spin up sandboxed kdb+ environments and consume our free on-demand curriculum. This tied in with our extensive documentation and friendly community moderators will ensure that you continue to learn and grow.

I hope that this helps clarify the situation.

Daniel

[Tom_Martin1]

Hi Daniel

Will users still be able to download just the pure q binary for free? Or will everyone have to download Kx Insights, which is overkill for 99% of personal use (at-home training, hobby projects, building open source libraries for the community, etc)? 

[rak1507]

'we are extremely proud of our developer community' - only the ones that pay you (fine, capitalism, whatever)

sandbox is ridiculously slow (I just timed it - it took 4 minutes and 6 seconds to load) - hardly 'record breaking' (maybe the record for the slowest online repl?)

[DBaker]

Hi Rak1507,

We’re not asking you to pay, we are just asking you to register through trial@kx.com and we will assess and issue your license.

Re the sandbox environment, let me investigate the issue, I appreciate you flagging!

Dan

[jaborror]

Perhaps you would be interested in my next book "Q for the Few." Instead of posting in on your website, people will email me to get access.

I am looking at new modalities to consume programming languages and documentation.

[DBaker]

Thank you for your comment rak1507.

While I am not able to comment on the company’s decision what I will say is that we are not closing the door. We are simply asking users to contact our trial team (trial@kx.com) so that we can better understand usage, case by case.

If you are experiencing issues with the sandbox environment, you are also free to reach out to evangelism@kx.com who will be happy to investigate.

Daniel

[isotope1]

So I'd just like to credit KX for making incredible software. I first tried KDB just under a year ago, when trying to process a large CSV file, and experienced the shock-and-awe.

I've spent most of my free time learning KDB this year, asked a great number of questions on StackOverflow, and evangelised the product to anyone who would listen. This wouldn't have been possible with a 'call us to discuss your needs' type license.

I respect KX's decision, and wish you the very best.

[DBaker]

Hi Isotope1,

Thank you for your kind words, while I am not technical, I love to see how our developer communities use kdb+ software to do amazing things. We would hate to see you go and are happy to work with you via trial@kx.com until we can implement a self-serve solution.

Best,
Dan

[jbetz34]

Is this the prohibition era of kdb+?

[Hercule]

Saddening news indeed, and I'd hope there would be some reflection at Kx on the feedback here.

I witnessed the q community growing in the past years, and can attest that (at least in one instance) the availability of a personal KDB licence has led to a new client for Kx. Had there not been a personal licence available for people to play around at home, Kx would not have been on the radar for new adaption.

Without a personal licence option, my feel is you might as well close the community.kx.com page as well. I wouldn't expect many people posting here in their professionally capacity.

For now, I remain optimistic that a new personal licensing arrangement will be brought forward that will allow the community to grow.

[DBaker]

Hi Hercule,

The free licenses are not going, we are simply changing the way in which you obtain one. For now it’s an email to trial@kx.com however, we are looking at other modalities to simplify through self-serve.

Hope this helps,

Dan

[DBaker · Accepted solution]

Valued community members.

I appreciate your comments and concerns, but want to reiterate, we are not abandoning our developer community, we are simply asking you to reregister your interest through trial@kx.com so that we can track usage and guide new users to our supporting documentation, curriculums, and resources.

Over the weekend we have received a number of these requests, all of which have been actioned.

I hope this serves to address any misinterpretation and look forward to your continued contributions on the KX Community. 

Dan

[Tom_Martin1]

Hi Daniel

While it might sound trivial, having to email for a copy is an overhead/annoyance that i think would dissuade plenty of people from doing so (just look at some of the comments in this thread). I assume these requests wouldn't be fulfilled on a weekend, for example.

You could just add some links to training materials and documentation in q.q and let people download as and when they need. 

Overall, I view this as a backward step. 

[DBaker]

Hi Tom,

We’ve been issuing licenses over the weekend and looking into ways that we can turn this into a self-serve process.

For now, people will need to email, but we are listening and I will update the thread with any new developments.

Dan

[DBaker]

Dear Community Members,

The new process for requesting the 64-bit on demand personal use license is now live and can be accessed from the following link. https://kx.com/developers/download-licenses/ 

Thank you for your patience as we have worked through this.

Daniel Baker

[egor7]

Hello!

Have you recently closed the process for requesting the 64-bit on demand personal use license?
On a page https://kx.com/developers/download-licenses/ "Access 64bit Now" link https://kx.com/64bit-on-demand-personal-edition/ leads to https://kx.com/404-error
Could you confirm that it is over with free versions, or fix the process please.

Thank you,
Egor

[davidcrossey]

Hi egor7,

Thanks for raising.

The link should be working for you now, could you please try again?

Regards,

David