Home / Community & Support / Developer Productivity Tools Forums / Silverlight > General Discussions > "eval version"

• Giancarlo Aguilera

  Posted on Sep 9, 2008 (permalink)

  Hello,
  

  I sent the message below to sales but I am not sure I am going to get a response and this is somewhat urgent. Hopefully someone here can clue me in. Thanks
   

  We recently upgraded to the latest version of the telerik silverlight controls and noticed that now a large and intrusive “eval version” sign pops up for a couple of seconds. I have a demo this Thursday and this will not do. I was hoping not to have to purchase anything until silverlight and telerik controls go RTM which should be fairly soon I would think but looks like I have no choice now. Can someone please assist??????????

   

  Thanks

   

  Giancarlo Aguilera

  310-369-0143

  Reply

• Valeri Hristov Valeri Hristov

  Posted on Sep 10, 2008 (permalink)

  Hi Giancarlo,
  
  Indeed, we added a trial message to the latest version of RadControls for Silverlight. It cannot be avoided, but will not be displayed if the application is loaded from localhost. We usually don't do this, but - attached is the developer version of the assemblies, I suppose that you need to just update your references and rebuild the application. I wish you luck with the demo and let me know if you have problems with the attached files!
  
  All the best,
  Valeri Hristov
  the Telerik team

  
  Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.

  Attached files

  • Telerik_RadControls_for_Silverlight_Beta2_Dev.zip

  Reply

• Ben Hayat MVP

  Posted on Sep 11, 2008 (permalink)

  Valeri;
  
  Indeed, we added a trial message to the latest version of RadControls for Silverlight. It cannot be avoided,
  
  So, you're saying from now until your RTM, any application we build with your controls, is going to say "Trail Version"? Based on the roadmap, the the RAD RTM won't be out till Nov. before we can purchase the SL Suite, and until then, our clients have to see this? None of the other vendors, including MSFT with SL is doing that. Once the product is in RTM and we have the choice of purchase or trail, then it will make sense. Until we have the choice of purchase, it should not say Trail version. This will create irritation for our clients!
  
  Note: Before you recommending that I should buy your entire suite to get SL at this point, I just wanted to say that I'm only interested in SL suite at the present and not in ASP.Net or WinForm or Report products!
  
  Update: I think a better solution to protect your product would be to put a deadline timeframe in the control that the trail version would show after that time. Another words, if the RTM is Nov. 1st, then the controls that were not purchased by Nov. 1st, would say "Trail Version". This is what MSFT has done with the Beta 1 Runtime 1 or Beta 2 runtime. Hope this helps!
  
  ..Ben

  Reply

• Valeri Hristov Valeri Hristov

  Posted on Sep 12, 2008 (permalink)

  Hi Ben,
  
  We had quite a long discussion here at Telerik about the trial messages and finally we decided to add a trial message in our last update. The main reason was that before MSFT claimed that Beta 2 will be compatible with the official release and there will be too few reasons for the developers to purchase the controls if they can freely use the Beta version. However, lately there are indications that the RTM will not be compatible with Beta 2, so I think that everyone in Telerik who was concerned about the lack of trial message in our controls will not mind if we replace the trial download with a developer download, as we did yesterday (the ZIP file is still named Trial, though).
  
  On the other hand, every customer, who has a valid subscription for RadControls, should have access to the developer versions of the Silverlight controls and will be able to avoid the trial message.
  
  Regards,
  Valeri Hristov
  the Telerik team

  
  Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.

  Reply

• Ben Hayat MVP

  Posted on Sep 12, 2008 (permalink)

  Valeri, protecting your software and intellectual property is fully understandable, however the timing and the method of how it is done, is very important not to annoy the real customers. I had asked before if we could use your beta in production and I was given green light without the terms about "Trail" message popping up on the production site and now I might face issues from clients, whose site keeps showing "Trail version".
  
  I think the decision of suddenly adding this message, is more on panic attack than a mature decision and you have more option to protect your software than blocking the production runtime at this point.
  
  a) As SL beta 1 runtime became expired when Beta 2 came out, I'm sure (very sure based on all the fixes for RTM) that SL RTM runtime will expire beta 2. You can check in your program, once the SL runtime is the RTM version, then the "Trail" message will come up. This way you you can stay with MS schedule
  
  b) As I said, You can put a time bomb in your program that this trail version is good until you have the RAD RTM for purchase. So, anyone who does not purchase it, will get this message.
  
  c) I think you have rushed into wrong conclusion by saying "there will be too few reasons for developers to buy this program". This is a crazy statement! Although the beta is good, but your RTM with grid and all the other enhancements will make this program a real production product. Who wants to continue with your beta for ever? I think you are under estimating your product.
  
  Having switched to this direction so suddenly, would alarm many potential customers about you making harsh decisions at any time, or at least you should have asked some of your MVPs and your advisory board and outside developers who deal with clients.
  
  Please forward my message to the right channel or have the Silverlight Suite SKU out for purchase, so we can buy the license. I don't want to get caught between a decision that Telerik has made and my clients and not being able to do anything about it.
  
  Thanks!
  ..Ben
  

  Reply

• Fani Fani

  Posted on Sep 15, 2008 (permalink)

  Hi Ben,
  
  I understand your points. I am sorry that we disappointed you with the "silent" addition of a Trial message, but actually we have a company practice, that has been around for a lot of time - all our beta products come with enabled Trial message and all clients who have a valid subscription get a developer version until the Beta becomes RTM, all clients that have no subscription are forced to use the Trial.
  
  Our plan is to offer the RadControls for Silverlight for sale separately on November 5, 2008 , shortly after the official release of Silverlight. Currently our newest product suites - RadControls for Silverlight and RadControls for WPF are available complimentary with the purchase of the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX + WinForms + Reporting license only.
  
  In your case, you already hold a license for Telerik Reporting and if you want to purchase the Silverlight controls before November 5, we can offer you an attractive upgrade to our bundle license, which will also entitle you to the Silverlight controls.
  
  Thank you for your feedback and again, I apologize for the caused trouble.
  
  All the best,
  The Telerik team

  
  Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.

  Reply

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