Individual Developer Licenses
As long as I am developing custom software based on SAP, I have always had the need (or maybe desire 😉 to play around with some new functions or try something out that I didn’t want to do in a regular SAP enviroment, either because it would jeopardise operation or just didn’t have anything to do with the current project or business.
Previously SAP had several types of licenses available that could meet this demand:
- SDN Trial licenses
- SAP Discovery server
- Netweaver Developer subscription
However, there was always a catch:
- No recent ABAP stack
- License expirations and the hassle of re-licensing
- High costs that would need management buy-in and business-cases
- Geographic availability
Introduction of Individual Developer Licenses
There is good news! SAP has promised to come up with Individual Developer License that could put an end to many of the limitations of the previous licenses. These Individual Developer Licenses were planned to be available in either November or December this year.
During the Teched I learned about some excellent benefits:
- Available world-wide
- Contains a recent ABAP stack as well as a Java stack
- License does not expire
- Available for free
As with the previous license there are some caveats as well, but I can understand where they come from and aren’t as limiting as the previous issues. Rui Nogueira told me that they didn’t call it an “Individual Developer’s” license for nothing. They don’t want companies to run productive applications on it and also wouldn’t like to see ISVs to develop products on it. Not only would it cause legal issues in the area of liability, but there are other and better licenses available to fulfil that need. For my personal hacking and experimenting with SAP’s latest development environment, this license is a perfect fit though.
Wish-list
Although I might be too too late with my wish-list regarding this license, it may not hurt either:
- Availability of both an ABAP and Java stack with CE. Inclusion of PI and BW would be a nice bonus.
- Updated to the latest versions: 7.2 Java and 7.0.2 ABAP.
- Links to SDN Code Exchange (maybe just Subclipse for Java, and a derivative of SAPLink for the ABAP development)
if this comes true it would be great!
Best regards
Renald
At the teched I have received so many confirmations by so many (SAP) people, that I can hardly imagine that SAP changes its mind.
Regards,
Jan
Any indication of when this will be available?
I had expected its release in December, but have my hopes set on January now. I haven't seen any confirmations from SAP yet.
Regards,
Jan
I would like to see those licences for business solutions as well. As it happens for me to be playing around with the shiny new WebClient of SAP.
Given all the stuff on SDN you do not have the possibility to try out any stuff as the CRM_UI framework is never included.
cheers Carsten
The idea behind the individual developer licenses is that you have an platform to use for individual developement. The license will not include applications such as CRM (or SRM, ERP etc). In case you want to develop applications that make use of CRM functionality, it would probably be best to install your individual developer license (when it is available) and hook it up to web-services published by your CRM system.
Besides, would you really want to install a full-fledged CRM or maybe even IDES system on your laptop or home computer?
Cheers,
Jan
I also read a good blog, that goes nicely with this one. It's about SDN code exchange. Another interesting concept for those of us who like to play with new "stuff".
SDN Code Exchange is coming
If you are interested in code-exchange, Michael Bechauf's blog is also a must read: On SDN Code Exchange, Open Source and Free Software
In case you didn't notice: some days ago we've created a new blog category for code exchange. So you can assign your blog to that category, too.
Cheers,
Rui
Also, why the geographically restrictions for the SAP NetWeaver Development Pack?
I believe the SAP Netweaver Developer Subscription was only rolled out in the US and Germany as a pilot. After that pilot, it just didn't get any follow-up until now.
The SAP Community Developer Edition is out.
The non-partner license was announced to be available by the end of Q1/2010. As Q1 still has a few days to go, I'm crossing my fingers 😉
Cheers,
Jan
Q2/2010 has started, but I still cannot find any up-to-date details on the status for buying this license. Do you have any news on
- availability date
- details on the license, as the price is stated + support and 22% annual maintenance
- License right is restricted to development only; Can I still test my own development or what is meant with "no test license"?
As we wanted to buy the license rather yesterday I would be gratefull for some more detailed information about it.
Thanks,
Dagmar
I was looking at the license conditions.
I would point the following:
+ ABAP namespace is not included
I think it is very important to include Namespace into the license, because with namespace you are sure your development can be transfered to a any SAP machine in the world.
+ no productive use
How will SAP ensure that software on Code exchange will not pick up by someone and used in productive enviroment?
All the best,
Guido