February, 2011
In lieu of my past complaining about Reflector’s new owners you might expect some outrage about the announcement today that redgate will be charging $35 for this product starting in March. Your current free version will stop working shortly thereafter forcing you to buy the upgrade or find another tool. I can’t say, however, that I’m all that surprised. The .net ecosystem is a place where tools cost money. Visual Studio costs money. SQL Server costs money. Sure there are ways to write C# code in notepad++ and run the compiler on the command line, but I don’t know too many developers who operate like that. And $35 is small fries compared to what I pay for a control set like DevExpress. I say vote with your wallet. If you find value in the tool at that price - great! Otherwise, find an alternative or build your own. As for me, I’m holding out for this - especially since I’m already a customer and love what they put out.
