{UPDATE} SFS2X Release Candidate coming soon!

Post by **Lapo** » 04 Oct 2010, 09:14

Hello,
we're getting swamped with requests about when SFS2X will be publicly available, which is great

So it's time for a new update. We have been running a private beta during August and September and we're very glad to see the positive response to the new features. Thanks to all participants, and if you're an SFS customer and want to join the beta there's still room for it

The good news is that we're approaching the public release which will be out in 2-3 weeks, ideally before the end of the October.
The release will bring a lot stuff (API, new AdminTool, examples and docs etc...) and there will be more to come in the next months

We will also provide the new license plans with relative prices and start a promotional phase!

As usual, stay tuned

Cheers

rjgtav · Post by **rjgtav** » 04 Oct 2010, 16:39

Great!

Can't wait for it

jdx · Post by **jdx** » 05 Oct 2010, 09:28

Any update/idea on licensing model and pricing? It's quite a big deal potentially... historically I've seen many products increase in price on major updates, and/or force existing users to pay big upgrade fees.

Is there any reason you cannot pre-announce such information now, assuming you didn't already?

Post by **Lapo** » 05 Oct 2010, 13:23

Sure, we perfectly understand your concern. It all sounds nice and dandy but how about prices?

Yep, fair enough.

Prices and licensing options will be available in a few weeks together with the public release, so it's not going to take too long.
The reason for no pre-announces is that we are finishing to define the licensing details and believe me it's not as easy as it might sound. There's lots of stuff behind a licensing model and we don't like the idea to publish an incomplete plan.

As I have ensured different times in the forums, don't fear changes in the order of magnitude of the prices. We will keep very competitive fees and provide additional licensing options employing the usual "pay-the-difference" upgrade system. There will be also another nice thing that I am not allowed to mention right now but I am sure it will be highly appreciated... and we will launch a promotional phase right after the public release which we think will be very attractive.

Hope this is enough to convince you to fear not

jdx · Post by **jdx** » 05 Oct 2010, 13:53

Fair enough. One follow-up question though... could you comment specifically about what would happen if someone bought a 1.x license today for â‚¬1000 and wanted a 2.0 license when it's released?

sHTiF · Post by **sHTiF** » 05 Oct 2010, 14:53

jdx wrote:Fair enough. One follow-up question though... could you comment specifically about what would happen if someone bought a 1.x license today for â‚¬1000 and wanted a 2.0 license when it's released?

Very interesting question this is exactly why we are waiting for the 2X even though we are desperate to have a new SFS license. We already have SFS1X unlimited license and now need another one but exactly due to fear of additional fees we are simply waiting for the SFS2X. It would be unfortunate to buy SFS1X license now for 2000 euro and then pay additional fees to upgrade to SFS2X unlimited.

Some products atleast provide costless upgrade to new version if the old version was bought within a limited timeframe before the major update. For example i bought FDT3.5 two months ago and this week they released FDT4 which i got for free.

Lapo are you guys planning to do something similar? Even though it was mentioned multiple times that SFS1X and 2X are not direct competitors and will be presented as different products, still.

Post by **Lapo** » 05 Oct 2010, 19:23

@jdx

jdx wrote:Fair enough. One follow-up question though... could you comment specifically about what would happen if someone bought a 1.x license today for â‚¬1000 and wanted a 2.0 license when it's released?

I think you should read the f.a.q accompanying the SFS2X announcement, which explains "upgrading" options: http://smartfoxserver.com/2X/

Pleas bear in mind that SFS2X and SFS PRO are really two different classes of products and there's no "natural" upgrade from one to the other. It is like asking to upgrade a CRT monitor to an LCD monitor... they are both monitors, sure, but two very different classes of product.

If you are developing or already running an SFS PRO based application you should keep going like that. Your application won't run on SFS2X out of the box, it will require a certain amount of rework both on client and server side.

Hope it helps

Post by **Lapo** » 05 Oct 2010, 19:35

sHTiF wrote: Very interesting question this is exactly why we are waiting for the 2X even though we are desperate to have a new SFS license. We already have SFS1X unlimited license and now need another one but exactly due to fear of additional fees we are simply waiting for the SFS2X. It would be unfortunate to buy SFS1X license now for 2000 euro and then pay additional fees to upgrade to SFS2X unlimited.

I think the problem here is to make sure that the concept of two different products is clear. From your question it sounds like SFS PRO and 2X are interchangeable or one could naturally be upgraded to the other, which is not the case.

If you desperately need a PRO license for an existing application then I can only suggest to go ahead and get it. As I have stated in my previous response the two products are of two different classes and you won't be able to run your PRO-based project on 2X unless you reserve some time to rewrite parts of the client and server code.

On the other hand, if you are starting a new project and would like to take advantage of all the new features coming in 2X then I would advise to just go ahead and start working with the beta. The current version is already very stable and allows you to fully develop your application without the fear that the API will change because of the beta state and such...
This won't happen, unless for very minor details. 99% of the framework is final and stable.

Successive updates will just add the missing features (BlueBox, JMX...) and enrich the feature set.

As regards the fear that prices might levitate outside your current budget I do understand that. If my previous answer does not satisfy you or it doesn't lower your anxiety we're open to disclose more details privately under a non-disclosure agreement. You can get in touch with us via email and we can discuss the process.

Hope it helps

jdx · Post by **jdx** » 05 Oct 2010, 21:06

Just because they're not "code compatible" doesn't mean they are different products. It's hard to see (to me) how 1.x and 2X can be classed as different products, they seem designed to do the exact same job and have similar architecture/concepts, apparently deliberately.
If 2X doesn't supercede 1.x, then wouldn't that mean there are reasons why some developers should still choose 1.x for new products even after 2X is released?

Post by **Lapo** » 06 Oct 2010, 06:34

Again I have to refer you back to what we have written in the f.a.q.

[quote]We remain open to the possibility of offering an â€œupgrade feeâ€

jdx · Post by **jdx** » 06 Oct 2010, 12:15

Lapo wrote:
If 2X doesn't supercede 1.x, then wouldn't that mean there are reasons why some developers should still choose 1.x for new products even after 2X is released?
That's correct. In fact we will keep the 1.x alive together with 2X in order to provide a full range of products that can satisfy as many budgets and technical requirements as possible.

Can you give any examples or software or customers where 1.x is a better choice than 2X?

Am I right that 2X drops client-side support for AS2, since it's using binary protocol?

sHTiF · Post by **sHTiF** » 06 Oct 2010, 12:30

jdx wrote:Am I right that 2X drops client-side support for AS2, since it's using binary protocol?

Yep the API in SFS2X is only for AS3. And another major thing is that SFS2X no longer support AS2 server side development as well as other scripts and you need to work with JAVA. These are only major issues that i can come up with why anyone would use SFS1X within a new project, except maybe price range and i have this uneasy feeling that SFS2X will be quite more expensive but thats just my speculation.

But i still believe in these guys and will push our management to buy the SFS2X probably no matter what. However its getting tougher especially with stuff like PlayerIO out there witch costs fragment of the SFS price and it includes hosting. However the features can hardly be compared. But you know how it is try to convince the management that something is more rich feature wise when they don't know what most of it means anyway, all they see is cute games.

So far what i experienced in beta i am ecstatic about the 2X features and workflow its like christmas.

Zanpher · Post by **Zanpher** » 06 Oct 2010, 20:39

Pretty cool. I've been holding out on buying a license until 2x comes out. At least I know it will be coming out soonish, and the license prices will help determine if this is the way to go.