The other night I had a dream.
In this dream, Bill Gates was a friend of mine, and I had met up with him at a bar. He asked me how Atlantis was going, and I asked him in return if he'd seen the episode of South Park that featured the underpants gnomes. Unsurprisingly, he hadn't seen it. Anyway, I explained to him how the underpants gnomes had a master plan of converting their efforts in collecting underpants into profit, and that, with hindsight, the Atlantis business plan had not been too dissimilar.
Also somewhat unsurprisingly, this plan hasn't worked out too well for Atlantis. So, rather than just letting my effort over the last two years go to waste, I thought I might as well give away the applications to the community at large.
Currently, the applications still support licensing, so you have to 'purchase' the professional editions of SQL Everywhere, Schema Inspector and Data Inspector if you want to use them. It's a 0 cost, so you just go straight from the basket to purchase complete. In the near future I will be modifying the applications such that they don't support the licensing, and therefore that won't be required. I will probably also modify the web site so that people don't have to register in order to download the applications. That won't be for a while off yet, as I have other things to focus on.
Anyway, I'd just like to thank everyone that has supported Atlantis over the past two years, and hopefully the tools will still provide value to people. I will be running Google Ads on the web site in a vague attempt to cover the cost of hosting the site - however I somehow doubt that the income will cover it! Here's hoping...
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2/4/2011 2:32:01 PM #
Matt, two things - firstly thanks very much for not simply withdrawing these tools (free/paid/licensed) from distribution, the SQL Server community is certainly better off for having them available. secondly is just to comment that its such a shame you have not been able to turn any of these into a profit making scenario. have you considered a PayPal contributions link, such as I have seen on other sites.
FatherJack
2/4/2011 2:54:23 PM #
Pingback from topsy.comTwitter Trackbacks for Why Atlantis now provide totally free SQL Server tools [atlantis-interactive.co.uk] on Topsy.com
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2/4/2011 2:58:23 PM #
Paypal donations is something I'd like to consider. I'm hoping the Google Ads model starts to work a bit better, but that's something that will take time to tell...
mattw@atlantis-interactive.co.uk
2/4/2011 8:04:54 PM #
I can hear a voice of a real gentleman here and take this as an opportunity to thank you Matthew for developing and supporting such a wonderful tool. It really saved my ... bottom !On the other hand I am sorry to see you on the "yet another great mind succumbed to the post Y2K Internet revenue model bubble pop wound" side.Well, let the "never give up" (joemartinfitness.files.wordpress.com/.../...1.gif) approach prevail, I trust you grew both professionally and emotionally during your "commercial time" with Atlantis.I wish you all the best and health I can tell you counts above all!I will go ahead and Tweet about yet another great tool out for grabs, hopefully Google will be kind to you.Cheers and Thank You!
arthurz@gmx.com
2/4/2011 8:55:52 PM #
ArthurThank you very much for your kind words - they mean a lot. Thank you...
2/6/2011 9:40:04 PM #
Some new free tools enter the SQL marketplaceA while back, I started collecting links for free SQL Server resources available to everyone in the community.
Aaron Bertrand
2/7/2011 3:26:47 PM #
Yeah, I'd consider a paypal donation too ... might be something to toss out there and see if it sticks ...
JFS
2/7/2011 11:30:54 PM #
Thanks - I'll definitely have a look then. I do remember reading a while back that the TortoiseSVN team had some issues with Paypal randomly locking their account - but it might be worth a go
2/9/2011 10:19:50 PM #
Pingback from williamdurkin.wordpress.comGood News / Bad News « William Durkin's Blog
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2/27/2011 5:17:17 PM #
Pingback from sqlzen.wordpress.comAtlantis : free SQL Server tools « SQL Server & Technology
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6/23/2011 2:17:48 PM #
I would like thank you for your effort in creating such a beautiful piece of software that is so feature rich and for providing it for free. This tool is something that I cannot do without anymore. I also feel pained to know that you could not profit from selling the tool. I am sure lot of us would like to pay for the software. I would advice you to consider having the paypal donation option on your website. I would also like you to continue further development of the software if possible.
Sunil Nair
6/24/2011 6:57:07 PM #
SunilGlad you like it - I must admit, I don't get on very well without using the tools myself, so I will probably keep developing them, even if it's just for personal use As far as a paypal option is concerned - look on the home page, top right ThanksM
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