TSQL Stored Procs in VistaDB

The first beta for TSQL Stored Procedures is scheduled for this Friday (Nov 16, 2007).  This marks a huge milestone for VistaDB.  We plan to release a three beta builds approximately 10 days apart.  I fully expect to get a lot of feedback over the next couple of weeks of things we missed, or new requests for features.  Each will be evaluated and scheduled.  I am fully expecting that every feature will not make it into the first release of 3.3, but we will continue to release updates to 3.3 for quite some time. 

3.3 will probably be the next stable release for several months as we continue to work on the Server and LINQ. TSQL Procs are working today in our internal builds.  We have the ability to provide exception handling inside the stored procs through try…catch syntax, and are adding support for @@ERROR levels as well. This is a very exciting time for us at VistaDB. 

The release of 3.3 will represent the bulk of the effort to provide a lightweight alternative to SQL Server.  We will be the first third party database (that I know of) to be TSQL Stored Proc compatible with SQL Server.  And the best part is that we are 100% managed while doing it.  You can run the same engine via Mono on Linux, Mac OS X and FreeBSD.  That is pretty amazing as well. 

The fact that you can use VistaDB to build a solution that can scale up to SQL Server, or scale over to other platforms is a first for any third party, let alone a company as small as VistaDB.  We have made tremendous progress during the past 6 months, and I look forward to much more progress in 2008.

3.3 Release Date

We are currently setting the release date for 3.3 to go into production as December 14, 2007.  This will give us about a month to release beta updates and validate the current TSQL Proc design.  If we run into major problems we will push that date back, but I honestly do not expect that to happen.  I fully expect we will run into a new wish list for features, but they will continue to be added after the initial release.

License Enforcement changes in 3.3

VistaDB has always been licensed on a per developer basis.  This is continuing, but we are adding a new license validation tool to the GUI components (not the runtime).  What this means is that you will have to enter your serial number in order to run the Visual Studio plugin.  You can still install on as many machines as you personally use as a developer, but they may not run simultaneously. If you have a desktop and a laptop ( a lot of developers do) you will have no problems.  Where you run into problems is when you have VistaDB installed on 5 machines and all of them are running Visual Studio with developers in them at the same time.  You should have 5 licenses in this scenario.  One license per developer on the project, not just the database programmer (as we have often said). We routinely get phone calls for support from companies who have a single license.  The conversation typically goes something like this:

User: “I am in need of an answer for the following technical question.” VistaDB: “Ok, give me your license number.  Found it, what is your name?  Strange, your name is not the one on the license.” User: “Oh, yea Bob bought it but we all use it.” VistaDB:  “Did you know it is licensed per developer?  Each developer is supposed to have a license.” User: “Well, it let us all install it.  Um, I got to go now…  Click.”

VistaDB is very cost effective in comparison to any other commercial database runtime.  Even mySQL costs $550 per install per year.  We charge no runtime fees for deploying your applications.  But we do ask that you abide by the terms of usage. Many other developer tools only allow you 2 installs, and then block you from installing again.  I personally have always found this to be distasteful. 

Red Gate ANTS for example is a fantastic tool, but their installation licensing drives me nuts.  I upgrade my development machine about every 18 months.  Each time when I uninstall from the old machine and go to install on the new machine I have to call Red Gate and get them to release my account.  It is very frustrating.  At a minimum they could be like Macromedia and let me deactivate a machine when I know I am moving my license. Visual Assist from Whole Tomato Software is another great tool that I use.  I really like their licensing scheme.  You can install it as many times as you like.  But during runtime (The app runs within Visual Studio) it broadcasts on your local network a small packet.  If it detects other instances running with the same license it stops you from running.  They provide you with a 2 user concurrent license by default (desktop and laptop scenario), but beyond that you have to buy additional licenses.  I am fine with that, the tool makes reinstallation a breeze and license management simple. I think you can see which of the two I prefer. 

I prefer a simpler license management system.  Put it in the Visual Studio runtime designer, not the VistaDB Engine.  The runtime VistaDB engine will not have any licensing added to it at this time.  We may at some point digitally sign the engine to your organization for support tracking purposes. This would be done on our server and issued to you.

What about Source Edition subscriptions?

I get asked this question quite a bit.  Why do I have to pay for each developer when I can just buy the source?  The Source Edition is NOT a developer license for each person on the team. 

It gives your entire location the right to look at the code, and even install it.  But you still need a runtime license per developer.  You do not have to buy a source license for each developer on your team, only one per organization is required.  Yes, I realize a lot of people do not understand that, we will be clarifying it in the EULA, and making the online store more clear about purchase options as well.

Keeping honest people honest

Licensing is all about keeping honest people honest.  People who want to steal your product will figure out a way to do it no matter what your licensing scheme.  All we want to do is make it so people who are honest know they are violating the license agreement and have the ability to correct it. 

Company license needed?

Many components offer a company type license.  This license typically works like this:  You purchase a company license that comes with a base number of developers.  Then you pay a smaller amount to add additional developers over time when you need them.  These new developers are typically prorated for support terms so all of them are renewed at the same time.  I think this may be a good idea for VistaDB. We have more and more organizations that are using VistaDB, and perhaps we need to relook at the license model to give them something similar to what their purchasing agents and bosses are used to seeing in the industry.  This would not replace the current license, it would just be a new type of license to allow users who have a lot of developers, or who vary the number of developers over time.

Website changeover to new site planned

Starting this Friday (Nov 16) we will begin migration of the website over to the new asp.net based site.  You may experience brief outages or bookmarks that appear to no longer link.  We are making every effort to provider redirecting pages for bookmarks people may have on their system, but I am sure we will miss some.  If you have a page reference in the current site and cannot find it in the new one please let us know.

[EDIT - Yes, the website has been a SLOW painfull rollout due to the old site have everything so tightly coupled.]