> The free version has been a boon for many, but some are using it in ways it was not intended, and we felt Kx was exposing itself to a legal risk because the free version is unsupported.<p>I wonder what do they mean? What's not intended way and what's a legal risk they are talking about?<p>> HOWEVER, if you downloaded the free version of 32-bit kdb+ prior to September 13, 2015, you are free to use it for commercial use.<p>I don't understand how someone can prove that he downloaded it prior to September 13. Those are extremely confusing terms.
This is so disappointing! It was made free for commercial use last year, and was discussed on HN - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7522327" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7522327</a>
Unfortunately, their license comes in disagreement with what they posted on kxcommunity.com:<p>> That's why it now can only be used in a commercial environment for development and proofs of concept.<p>But license says:<p>> 1.1. "Commercial Use" means any use of the 32 Bit Kdb+ Software for the User or any third party's financial gain or other economic benefit. Any Beta-testing or production use of a User Application is Commercial Use. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the following are not Commercial Uses: (a) use solely for educational or personal purposes; (b) use by a registered charity or licensed educational institution, (c) development of a proof-of-concept application, even in a commercial setting; and (d) any use for which Kx has granted the User written permission.<p>This makes things confusing: one place they say development is ok, but in license agreement they say it's only "proof-of-concept applications"...
This kind of BS is a perfect example of why, when pushing for proprietary OSS, I always note it will take special protections for users. Many might try to do OSS temporarily just to freeload on users for code or marketing. So, have to be clear + firm on use cases while including terms to ensure community's involvement will keep paying off. At least they're letting those who were involved keep the free copy. The QNX community situation was worse IIRC...
I'm honestly surprised there are still people willing to trust their data to a "trial" version of a commercial database. I thought the FoundationDB situation was such a nice example that people would learn from it.
For what it's worth, most of kx's customers (including the one I work for) have datasets much larger than 4 GB, making the 32-bit edition practically worthless for production use.