Aras Given up on free Users?
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Hello, Aras is committed to ensuring that both open users and our subscribers can use our software to the fullest. Aras engagement on the forums may have fallen in the past few weeks as we prepare for ACE, our annual expo that we encourage all of our users to attend regardless of subscription status. In addition to the forums, Aras supports several resources for open users including the following. Aras Labs GitHub - Aras Labs maintains a number of useful projects created both internally and by members of our open community Aras Blog Posts - The Aras Community team regularly posts blogs about the business side of Aras, and the Aras Labs team regularly posts more technical blogs about how to use Innovator. In particular, you may be interested in our recent Helpful Resources blog post. Aras Knowledge Base - This page contains information on frequently asked questions. We're always adding to it if you have any ideas for a post in the knowledge base. I would also still encourage you to post any specific questions you have to the forums. The Aras Labs team regularly monitors the forums, and we typically try to respond in a timely manner. Chris
Christopher Gillis Aras Labs Software Engineer -
After acquiring Minava and investing in XPLM, it's clear that Aras began to stop open version of Innovator.
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After acquiring Minava and investing in XPLM, it's clear that Aras began to stop open version of Innovator.
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Well there still "is" a open version. Unfortunately it´s still 12SP9.
One thing that most of the people out there probably oversee: 12SP9 is a still solid work-horse version. Not every new version is a big hit, some introduce a lot of new bugs while other versions fix them.
For example I take care for a 12SP7 instance and it´s sooo much worse then 12SP9 regarding tiny little surprising bugs. Regarding features they are pretty equal, but quality difference is really notable in many corners. I planned to upgrade to 12SP18, but again...a few showstopper bugs where enough to drop the update. (https://community.aras.com/f/development/36912/warning-versioning-and-tab-pane-very-buggy-in-new-innovator-versions-are-you-affected) .But of course this doesn´t answer the main question: Will there ever be a new open release? Well, it depends. To be honest, I don´t think we will see one soon.
Minerva and XPLM are symptoms. The main change in the last months were new investors and new management. (I hope they don´t mess it up.). And of course they also had to face unfavorable business conditions (covid, dev center changes), so free users aren´t really in the focus.
The open version was important for Aras in the past. But it´s not anymore today. Focus is mainly large accounts. If these customers want to test out your product, they simply call in.
Open release was a door opener for small/mid-sized accounts. But these customers aren´t helpful when you want to grow super-fast. But that´s what investors want to see.
It´s a dilemma. They do a lot of things right in the current roadmap and finally care for the applications (stuff that SMB uses!!). This gives some hope that they return to a broader focus regarding customers.
