7 ms·

WebStorm and Rider Are Now Free for Non-Commercial Use

92 points by yett 2y ago

abhijeetpbodas 2y ago
Specifically worth noting: > It’s important to note that, if you’re using a non-commercial license, you cannot opt out of the collection of anonymous usage statistics.
- appplication 2y ago
  This is a common and acceptable tradeoff for free products.
- thatfunkymunki 2y ago
  https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/18786968063378-Hardcoded-DNS-queries https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/po... not just anonymous statistics, i presume
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
lolinder 2y ago
My JetBrains all products pack is one of the few subscriptions that I enthusiastically pay every year. People talk about Copilot or Claude as a force multiplier, but I use both and would rather give them both up than switch full-time to VS Code or similar. Between their git integration, navigation tools, refactors, search, and so on, programming in a large codebase with a JetBrains IDE is just a completely different experience than trying to do it in a lower-power editor. And, of course, the other reason why I'm so enthusiastic about their products is that they're one of the only companies that has been able to maintain a thoroughly symbiotic relationship with the developer community. They somehow have consistently maintained a healthy balance of giving things away without losing their business—their subscription model is humane (you get to use the last version you paid for indefinitely), they have an open source core, and they lean in more than most to giving their paid products away to students and others who can't pay.
- TYPE_FASTER 2y ago
  Same here. The JetBrains products are indispensable for me. They've converted me after being an Emacs user for 30 years.
  - sitkack 2y ago
    Can you imagine if JetBrains worked their magic on Emacs?! Years ago, there was a company that made a refactoring engine for C, I believe I paid >100$ for it in the late 90s or early 2000s. It was a standalone server that could communicate with Emacs (I wasn't an Emacs user). For a consulting engagement, I bought this tool and learned Emacs. I printed out a poster that I put on the wall that show the workflow for the most common tasks I needed to accomplish. I could not have completed it without it. I discussed this with other programmers at the time, and they were somewhat incredulous that I bought software instead of spending 10x the time to complete the task. Knowing when to buy tools is a skill in and of itself.
    - arkh 2y ago
      > Can you imagine if JetBrains worked their magic on Emacs?! No need for a mouse and on-the-fly macro recording and replaying? How many first-born do they want?
    - sitkack 2y ago
      http://xrefactory.com/ http://xrefactory.com/ now OSS https://github.com/thoni56/c-xrefactory https://github.com/thoni56/c-xrefactory
- simion314 2y ago
  Same here, I imagine also how had is for them to compete against free products paid by tech giants, they have no choice then be better and threat the users with respect.
- theChaparral 2y ago
  I'm all in with the JetBrains love, but for clarity, you can keep the first version you paid for indefinitely not the last. So if you decide to stop paying the subscription you have to go back to a year old version.
Triangle9349 2y ago
Huge! Forced data collection, I hope at least the code is not sent for training
- simion314 2y ago
  There is enough of code on the internet already for big tech to train , what is probably missing is some scoring or labeling for that code so this AIs stop suggesting outdated stuff or bad stuff.
- anstarovoyt 2y ago
  As mentioned in the blog post, the statistics include IDE-related data, such as user actions, and basic information about the project, including frameworks and libraries (though limited to a predefined whitelist). Overall, this is quite similar to the data collection done by EAP for the products. Source code is never sent under any circumstances.
sitkack 2y ago
> Earlier this year, we implemented a new licensing model for our recently introduced IDEs, RustRover and Aqua, making them free for non-commercial use. We’re now extending this model to WebStorm and Rider. If you’re using these IDEs for non-commercial purposes, such as learning, open-source project development, content creation, or hobby development, you can now do so for free.
OutOfHere 2y ago
JetBrains IDEs are better than VSCode, but due to Copilot integration in VSCode, I moved away from JetBrains. I don't see myself going back to JetBrains. Secondly, the free JetBrains IDEs also lack devcontainer support which is readily present in VSCode. To not use devcontainer is a substantial security hazard.
- simion314 2y ago
  >Secondly, the free JetBrains IDEs also lack devcontainer support which is readily present in VSCode. To not use devcontainer is a substantial security hazard. Can you elaborate? Is VS Code making containers for you so you are safe from packages or from random plugins you have to install?
  - OutOfHere 2y ago
    Why do I have to elaborate? It is well known that a container offers a sandbox and process isolation. The risk from not using one can be severe. The risks include but are not limited to packages and plugins.
    - simion314 2y ago
      So you are afraid of evil packages but then you deploy them in production? So you are safe and screw your users ?
      - OutOfHere 2y ago
        Huh. That makes no sense. If I am experimenting with something, I won't necessarily deploy it.
        simion314 2y ago
        I am 100% sure that everything you deploy you review? Maybe is safer to setup a secure environment for your system and for production if you use dangerous packages.
scblzn 2y ago
However, be careful with the terms of non-commercial usage (Enforced heavy metrics) "You agree that the product will send usage data to validate your compliance with the license terms and anonymous feature usage statistics..." "The information collected under Sections 4.1. and 4.2. may include but is not limited to frameworks, file templates used in the Product, actions invoked, and other interactions with the Product’s features."
OutOfHere 2y ago
JetBrains fanboys won't understand or acknowledge that the free versions of JetBrains IDEs are just not competitive anymore against VSCode. This is for multiple reasons. For example, these features are present in VSCode for free, but not in JetBrains IDEs: (1) CoPilot code completion (for open source GitHub users) (2) devcontainer integration (3) docker integration
- lostmsu 2y ago
  They are very competitive unless you program in a shitty language like JS. 1 is no different. And the other two are simply useless to me for any kind of development (and yes, I do fullstack, just not with Node).
- ffsm8 2y ago
  As a person that frequently uses vscode and the paid versions of the jetbrains IDEs: Aren't these just Plugins you can install from the settings(both for vscode and jetbrains IDEs)? Do the free versions not include plugin support?
  - OutOfHere 2y ago
    Like I said already, the free versions of JetBrains IDEs do not have these plugins or features.
  - lolinder 2y ago
    The GitHub Copilot integration is built by Microsoft and is present in both of the CE builds (IntelliJ and PyCharm). I'm not at all sure why they think it's not. OP is correct about Docker integration and Dev Containers: they cannot be added to the free versions. Dev Containers specifically seems to be OP's big sticking point, but it's a weirdly pedantic point. JetBrains can't give everything away for free or they wouldn't be able to fund their development. Picking a few professional-grade features and asking people to pay if they really need them is a totally reasonable approach.
    - OutOfHere 2y ago

92 points by yett 2y ago

Specifically worth noting: > It’s important to note that, if you’re using a non-commercial license, you cannot opt out of the collection of anonymous usage statistics.

appplication 2y ago
This is a common and acceptable tradeoff for free products.
thatfunkymunki 2y ago
https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/18786968063378-Hardcoded-DNS-queries https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/po... not just anonymous statistics, i presume

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

lolinder 2y ago

My JetBrains all products pack is one of the few subscriptions that I enthusiastically pay every year. People talk about Copilot or Claude as a force multiplier, but I use both and would rather give them both up than switch full-time to VS Code or similar. Between their git integration, navigation tools, refactors, search, and so on, programming in a large codebase with a JetBrains IDE is just a completely different experience than trying to do it in a lower-power editor. And, of course, the other reason why I'm so enthusiastic about their products is that they're one of the only companies that has been able to maintain a thoroughly symbiotic relationship with the developer community. They somehow have consistently maintained a healthy balance of giving things away without losing their business—their subscription model is humane (you get to use the last version you paid for indefinitely), they have an open source core, and they lean in more than most to giving their paid products away to students and others who can't pay.

TYPE_FASTER 2y ago
Same here. The JetBrains products are indispensable for me. They've converted me after being an Emacs user for 30 years.
- sitkack 2y ago
  Can you imagine if JetBrains worked their magic on Emacs?! Years ago, there was a company that made a refactoring engine for C, I believe I paid >100$ for it in the late 90s or early 2000s. It was a standalone server that could communicate with Emacs (I wasn't an Emacs user). For a consulting engagement, I bought this tool and learned Emacs. I printed out a poster that I put on the wall that show the workflow for the most common tasks I needed to accomplish. I could not have completed it without it. I discussed this with other programmers at the time, and they were somewhat incredulous that I bought software instead of spending 10x the time to complete the task. Knowing when to buy tools is a skill in and of itself.
  - arkh 2y ago
    > Can you imagine if JetBrains worked their magic on Emacs?! No need for a mouse and on-the-fly macro recording and replaying? How many first-born do they want?
  - sitkack 2y ago
    http://xrefactory.com/ http://xrefactory.com/ now OSS https://github.com/thoni56/c-xrefactory https://github.com/thoni56/c-xrefactory
simion314 2y ago
Same here, I imagine also how had is for them to compete against free products paid by tech giants, they have no choice then be better and threat the users with respect.
theChaparral 2y ago
I'm all in with the JetBrains love, but for clarity, you can keep the first version you paid for indefinitely not the last. So if you decide to stop paying the subscription you have to go back to a year old version.

Triangle9349 2y ago

Huge! Forced data collection, I hope at least the code is not sent for training

simion314 2y ago
There is enough of code on the internet already for big tech to train , what is probably missing is some scoring or labeling for that code so this AIs stop suggesting outdated stuff or bad stuff.
anstarovoyt 2y ago
As mentioned in the blog post, the statistics include IDE-related data, such as user actions, and basic information about the project, including frameworks and libraries (though limited to a predefined whitelist). Overall, this is quite similar to the data collection done by EAP for the products. Source code is never sent under any circumstances.

sitkack 2y ago

> Earlier this year, we implemented a new licensing model for our recently introduced IDEs, RustRover and Aqua, making them free for non-commercial use. We’re now extending this model to WebStorm and Rider. If you’re using these IDEs for non-commercial purposes, such as learning, open-source project development, content creation, or hobby development, you can now do so for free.

OutOfHere 2y ago

JetBrains IDEs are better than VSCode, but due to Copilot integration in VSCode, I moved away from JetBrains. I don't see myself going back to JetBrains. Secondly, the free JetBrains IDEs also lack devcontainer support which is readily present in VSCode. To not use devcontainer is a substantial security hazard.

simion314 2y ago
>Secondly, the free JetBrains IDEs also lack devcontainer support which is readily present in VSCode. To not use devcontainer is a substantial security hazard. Can you elaborate? Is VS Code making containers for you so you are safe from packages or from random plugins you have to install?
- OutOfHere 2y ago
  Why do I have to elaborate? It is well known that a container offers a sandbox and process isolation. The risk from not using one can be severe. The risks include but are not limited to packages and plugins.
  - simion314 2y ago
    So you are afraid of evil packages but then you deploy them in production? So you are safe and screw your users ?
    - OutOfHere 2y ago
      Huh. That makes no sense. If I am experimenting with something, I won't necessarily deploy it.
      - simion314 2y ago
        I am 100% sure that everything you deploy you review? Maybe is safer to setup a secure environment for your system and for production if you use dangerous packages.

scblzn 2y ago

However, be careful with the terms of non-commercial usage (Enforced heavy metrics) "You agree that the product will send usage data to validate your compliance with the license terms and anonymous feature usage statistics..." "The information collected under Sections 4.1. and 4.2. may include but is not limited to frameworks, file templates used in the Product, actions invoked, and other interactions with the Product’s features."

OutOfHere 2y ago

JetBrains fanboys won't understand or acknowledge that the free versions of JetBrains IDEs are just not competitive anymore against VSCode. This is for multiple reasons. For example, these features are present in VSCode for free, but not in JetBrains IDEs: (1) CoPilot code completion (for open source GitHub users) (2) devcontainer integration (3) docker integration

lostmsu 2y ago
They are very competitive unless you program in a shitty language like JS. 1 is no different. And the other two are simply useless to me for any kind of development (and yes, I do fullstack, just not with Node).
ffsm8 2y ago
As a person that frequently uses vscode and the paid versions of the jetbrains IDEs: Aren't these just Plugins you can install from the settings(both for vscode and jetbrains IDEs)? Do the free versions not include plugin support?
- OutOfHere 2y ago
  Like I said already, the free versions of JetBrains IDEs do not have these plugins or features.
- lolinder 2y ago
  The GitHub Copilot integration is built by Microsoft and is present in both of the CE builds (IntelliJ and PyCharm). I'm not at all sure why they think it's not. OP is correct about Docker integration and Dev Containers: they cannot be added to the free versions. Dev Containers specifically seems to be OP's big sticking point, but it's a weirdly pedantic point. JetBrains can't give everything away for free or they wouldn't be able to fund their development. Picking a few professional-grade features and asking people to pay if they really need them is a totally reasonable approach.
  - OutOfHere 2y ago