Other It's time to grow

[Erel]

I’m very proud in the continuing progress of B4X tools. I’m also very proud to be part of this amazing developers community.

In the last couple of years, I have a growing feeling that B4X tools do not realize their potential. While there are all kinds of development tools, B4X offers a unique set of features: simple, powerful, mature, great community, RAD, native, cross platform and more.
B4X tools are an excellent choice for a wide range of real-world use cases.

So, the question is how to make B4X more popular? Obviously, it is not a simple nor a short-term task.
A clear growth barrier is the fact that unlike most development tools today, B4A and B4i are not free. This wasn’t the case 10 years ago.

The big announcement today is that B4A will become free in a few weeks. The framework - set of internal libraries, will be open sourced.

We will accept contributions for B4A like currently done with B4J.
We've also secured funds from a US investor who shares my vision of making B4X a popular development tool. These resources will allow us to further expand.

How can you help?

Help us spread the word about B4X.

 

[nobbi59]

Erel, this is very big news for all people that are using B4X for their business.

I am developing apps for other companies and I always had the problem that i couldnt choose B4A to write apps for my clients because i dont have access to the full source but this decision changes everything for me! Thank you very much for all the years of excellent support, keep up the good work!

This will make B4X A LOT more popular.

 

[iCAB]

About your main question, there will probably some restrictions in the forum for users who haven't bought a license or made a contribution. They will be able to download libraries however their posts will be moderated.

I think a suggested license/subscription fee that gives access to priority support would be a nice thing to have.

 

[DALB]

A good way to help : you could be to create such a subscription for the access to the help forums, for instance a cost per question or a cost per year or month. Something like 5 or 10 euros , it depends on the period.
Like paypal does, a credit count can be realized with money. Eeach member put in it and each time a subject is created in the forums, points are counted. Then for x points, 1 euro or dollar is extracted from the count.
Many ideas are possible, but first, thank Erel for you work.

 

[udg]

Another possible way to differentiate subscribers form others: only subscribers could post questions in the Forum while others will still be free to fully search and navigate.
This way, if you pay (even a small fee thanks to a larger audience) you're allowed to post questions like "how do I..". Otherwise you limit yourself to search the Forum, hoping that others had the same problem before or needed a similar help.

 

[M.LAZ]

Another thought: How about opening B4A up to developers to give them the possibility to become shareholders in Anywhere Software? It's just a matter of issuing shares (not a public listing) and maybe paying some dividend annually. The upside of such a construction is that the B4A developers will get a win-win, both as share holders, who know everything about the business like no other, and as developers who can thus protect their own interests in B4A as stakeholders. It will also ascertain continuity. I don't see any down sides.

I support your idea. I do not think that all the developers here in our community would oppose it. But the last decision concerns to Erel.

 

[iCAB]

Apparently, we all want Erel to make money and be able to provide the same level of support.
Best of luck to Erel and the B4X product line

 

[omarruben]

First, yes it is a great tool, thank you for that, my complain.... documentation and tutorials are dificult, I have been trying to do proyects and looking for a very specific parts on the help.... Jut got help on the forums... Still on the forums the help desapea in time

 

[alain bertrand]

Thanks Erel, you've been the rocket's booster for many years. Now, it's time for B4A to orbitate with so many successful free tools. Viel Glück!

 

[Cadenzo]

I love B4X and not many things I paid so willingly. Also in my opinion, setting B4A free and open source has many risks and also many chances. When I told to developers and tech-startups about B4X, the lack of interest was more about basic-language, than price. I did not want to comment here, because everything is already written, but now I watched this video and the point of why doing things open source was interesting.

 

[Erel]

is it possible for Erel to explain what might happen to B4i?

Nothing changes for now. It is possible that in the future it will also become free however it will not happen in the near future.

 

[Alessandra Pellegri]

But doing so, how will you earn your money?

 

[DonManfred]

But doing so, how will you earn your money?

Read #1 more carefully.

 

[Mbm]

Congratulations Erel I think it's a great opportunity to grow. I bet on B4A 7 years ago and I have created very useful professional applications for my company, I took the correct decision. The only thing is that when a customer ask me what tool I'm using to produce the apps B4A still is not recognised as a top of the market solution(because not all the people knows the potential of b4X). I think that if more people have access to the tool it will be better for all of us.

I wish that with this change we will have in the future the same awesome service that you have offered until now (especially because I have to mantain some applications for my customers the next years ).

 

[Alejandro Moyano]

I think is a great idea i was thinking to start to teach B4X on an small academy, will be easier if the students don't need to pay the license. Plus greater, for startups i think will be more easy to explain to posible investors about an open source tool than a closed unknow yet powerful tool.

Mi big concern is how are u going to handle support, if a lot of people come from first time i can imagine a tsunami of questions. Could be good have an support subscription? this forum haves the best support that i have seen ever.

I hope good luck on this quest, and help make basic a great language again!!

ps: excuses my rusty english, is not my main language.

 

[biometrics]

Read #1 more carefully.

I re-read it and it only says he has an investor. It doesn't explain how he is going to make money from a free B4A. I only saw this thread now with the release of 9.8 and have scanned the thread and read all Erel's replies. It's still not clear to me. Will there be any charges like for support etc? I understand B4i is excluded for now.

As a company that have used B4A from 1.5 in 2011 and have invested a large portion of our source code in B4A this is obviously of concern to us. It's clear that Erel isn't going anywhere but that still doesn't make us feel secure in the future.

If he can enlighten us on that aspect a bit it will help with feeling a bit insecure about this...

 

[juvanum]

in the future will we know who the investor is?

 

[omarruben]

I hope the investor, is not Apple nor Microsoft ... They kill everything they touch.... Congratulations and my best wishes to you and your team Erel

 

[vikingivesterled]

Some years ago I suggested to Microsoft that they'll do some cooperation with b4a to make a converter and fast increase the number of apps in their store.
I could see some other producer of an alternative OS have had the same thought and we can expect a b4? soon.
Isn't sample Huawei working on a new OS for their devices? Btw. still waiting for a wrap of their paid for apps store library since my free one is getting thousands of views every day and quite a few downloads even though its not even translated to Chinese yet.

 

[tigrot]

Read #1 more carefully.

I think I understood the new deal. And I agree.

 

[Nerdworld]

Well, i bought B4A enterprise 3 weeks ago... any chance to get a refund then?