Kdb+ Licensing

[DBaker]

Dear valued community members.

Last week you may have noticed that we implemented changes to our free non-commercial licensing. This was in direct response to a significant breach of our terms of service.

I know that this has caused some confusion and frustration within the community and for that, we would like to apologize.

Let me reassure you that we value our developer community and will continue to support you with access to our tooling via 64-bit on-demand licensing.

To request a new license, we kindly ask that you visit: https://kx.com/developers/download-licenses/

Thank you.

Daniel Baker

[Bumpyride]

Dan, thanks for the information.

I will not question KX's decision - that's entirely KX's business and not mine. However, I do have my doubts about the way this decision was implemented - and especially - communicated to the Community. But in mitigation, you also mention a significant breach of the ToS, so I guess KX management felt they had no other choice.

As implied here and in the related thread Saddening News, this is all just a temporary workaround while the new access mechanism is being put in place. Fine! Then I will now follow the new process and send an email requesting reinstatement of my 32-bit Personal Use local license, together with download instructions. After all, I would like to continue to use KDB+/q for playing, testing and occasionally even showing it off to colleagues and clients who have never heard of or seen it before.

I will come back here to describe the experience and outcome. Hopefully I will be able to contribute supporting testimony to your post and your explanation of the new (temporary) request mechanism.

Mike.

[Bumpyride]

Hi Dan,

as promised in my previous post, I am back here now to tell about my experience after following this new process described in your post.

I sent an email to trial@kx.com last Friday requesting a new license for personal use.

On Monday I received a reply from someone in your sales department saying that my request had been forwarded to the corresponding team. But then the mail also went on to ask me when I would be available for a conference call to discuss my needs and interests and that KX has "modernised" its offerings.

I responded that I had no requirements specifically related to sales and I explained my personal use case (development, testing, learning and demo).

I never heard back from KX. Nothing. Today is Wednesday.

I conclude that your statement, "Let me reassure you that we value our developer community and will continue to support you with access to our tooling..." is simply not true and that you may have been misinformed by others in your company.

It also seems that the negative comments in the Saddening News thread are not so wrong, after all. 
So, it is "Saddening News" in the end, despite all the so-called reassurances in the KX evangelists' replies.
Oh, well...

q)\\

[ashwinrajesh]

@Bumpyride  I'm in a similar position and I got this response after emailing earlier today:

The 64 bit on demand license should be available for request later this week, please keep an eye out for an announcement on the Community Page.

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[kiniv]

Hi Daniel, 

I also have fist hand example where people can't obtain license for quite some time now. If you're "simply changing the way in which you obtain" license, why couldn't you do it before you shutdown the previous way?
Can you please speed up new process as soon as possible. As mentioned in other threads free license was very important for learning KDB. 

[Bumpyride]

At least that would be a step in the right direction. Pity KX had to make it so convoluted and unfriendly to devs.

But I hope that they haven't killed off the 32-bit local version and limited the new licensing (when it finally arrives) to only 64-bit On Demand. I often work/play with kdb+/q when I am offline and while I have some time to kill, like while travelling. So the 32-bit local (offline) version is better suited for me. Let's wait and see.

[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

[Bumpyride]

That's good news, Dan!

Do you have any information about plans for an offline equivalent like the previous 32-bit personal use version? When I experiment with it, it's mostly while travelling on planes/trains/etc where I don't always have connectivity.

Thanks,
Mike

[DBaker]

Hi Mike,

Unfortunately, I don’t have that information (I’m not technical) but will pass on your comment to the relevant teams.

Dan