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Aurora Freeware Edition

Printed From: Aurora
Category: Aurora Sequencer Software
Forum Name: Aurora 1.0
Forum Discription: This is the place to discuss (and report bugs) the 1.0 version of Aurora
URL: http://www.aurorashow.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1028
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 6:07am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.06 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: Aurora Freeware Edition
Posted By: LightsOnLogan
Subject: Aurora Freeware Edition
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 1:15pm
You may have noticed that Aurora development and support has been struggling since we missed our deadline at the end of last year.  This is to let you all know what is happening.

Last year was a very bad year sales wise.  By the end of the year, we took a serious loss.  We've done several cost cutting measures with the hope of recovering from last year's slump, but even with the savings we can't pay the bills at our current level of sales (Year-to-date we've only sold three copies of Aurora).  A business that does not make money is really a hobby, not a business.  As a result, I have needed to timeshare the unprofitable  Aurora development time with other projects.  Combined with a couple development plan detours (like the installer), we've been unable to provide the level of product updates and support that we were once known for.

As a result, I am making the 1.x version of Aurora a freeware product.  Updates will continue to be done, but on a hobby basis instead of a commercial product basis.

DMX:
The ultimate goal is to make Aurora DMX compatible in as short of time as possible under the circumstances.  Hardware vendors (D-Light and LOR) are taking steps to make their products DMX compatible instead of using just their own proprietary protocols.  As a result, the obstacle that once existed regarging multiprotocol support in Aurora is largely diminishing on its own.  Version 1.1 of Aurora will fix copy/paste and a handful of other issues.  Version 1.1 will be the last version of Aurora 1.x to support the D-Light and LOR protocols.  Starting with version 1.2, Aurora will become a DMX only product.  This greatly simplifies the continued development and support of Aurora into the DMX era.  Support for the proprietary protocols will not return until version 2.

Version 2:
The future of version 2 remains uncertain.  If the high end Christmas display market turns around, then development on 2.x may resume.  If so, version 2.0 will be a commercial product just as 1.0 was.

The key to unlock Aurora 1.x as freeware is:
[Key Removed - Aurora is no longer freeware]








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http://www.aurorashow.com/">



Replies:
Posted By: Comporder1
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 2:05pm
wow Ermm

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http://www.williamsonworkshop.com - www.williamsonworkshop.com


Posted By: ChrisL1976
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 2:40pm
Completely understandable, but still...WOW.  Ermm




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Chris

www.lightsonsixth.com


Posted By: Slinkard
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 2:57pm
I am a big fan of how Linux works. Can we help the development? Go team????

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http://www.aurorashow.com/">
Coming soon www.computerizedlights.com


Posted By: TheQueb
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 5:49pm
As someone who doesn't see himself buying any DMX fixtures... wow. Unhappy As far as giving away the same product that I paid for, well, that's irritating to me but then I'm sometimes known as a grumpy old fart.

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80 D-Light-ful Channels
http://www.SoutheastTexasLights.com - Southeast Texas Lights
http://www.frappr.com/dlight - D-Light Users


Posted By: LightChristmas
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 6:08pm
Now THAT hit like a ton of bricks!

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http://www.aurorashow.com/">


Posted By: baelinc
Date Posted: 12 May 2010 at 6:50pm
That is good news for people just starting out... But not so good news for the people who have already paid for the product and have been waiting for updates to fix their $99 program that is now being given away for free.


Posted By: bdkeen
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 7:07am

I'll echo the 'WOW'.

Have been patiently awaiting 1.1 and untimatly the dmx ability.  Being one of the unemployment statistics since December as a result of the economic situations I can understand, and I'm sure the decision didn't come lightly. It's forced me to look at lower cost alternatives such as DIY and low cost DMX items to continue show growth. Even though we're trying to move forward and grow (on a zero budget - not easy) unemployment still has me uncertain and undecided if we'll even be doing a 2010 Christmas show.
 
I wish Aurora good fortune and luck and will remain faithful to the product as long as possible.
(just my 2 cents worth)


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Posted By: LightsOnLogan
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 7:27am
Queb,

You will not need DMX fixtures to take advantage of DMX... the hardware vendors have been gradually opening up their hardware to DMX firmware.  The DIY crowd has done a great deal to push things in this direction.  All this means is that you will use your same hardware (an ACx16 for instance), but drive it with the DMX protocol instead of the D-Light protocol. 

baelinc,
As a paid customer, you will obviously receive priority over the freeware customers when it comes to software support.  We're still actively updating the program (that hasn't changed); we're simply being honest regarding future timelines and the level of support attention that we are able to give to new customers (and pricing the product accordingly). 

We could have chosen from two other paths:
1 - Just close up shop and go away (leaving everyone hanging)
2 - Keep stalling and providing less than the best service

Aurora has had a few years as a version 1 product.  As with every version 1 product out there, we learned a lot along the way and wish we had done some things differently.  The optimist in me believes that the market will turn around.  When it does, we'll be able to make a comeback having learned our lessons for version 2. 

Slinkard,
If the market can't support version 2, then I may consider drafting the official architecture and making letting it be developed as an open source community project.  Actually, I'd love to port Aurora over to Linux but haven't had the time to put into learning a new development environment.

As for version 1, some contractual obligations prevent release of the source at this time (I looked into it), but if development really stalls beyond maintainability then I might be able to abstract those out into supporting DLLs making the remaining source available for community use.  In any case, I can guarantee this will not happen prior to September.

I'm not opposed to the idea... if you wish to continue to discuss it, let's move the discussion into a new thread.

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http://www.aurorashow.com/">


Posted By: LightsOnLogan
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 7:34am
Originally posted by bdkeen

I'll echo the 'WOW'.

Have been patiently awaiting 1.1 and untimatly the dmx ability.  Being one of the unemployment statistics since December as a result of the economic situations I can understand, and I'm sure the decision didn't come lightly. It's forced me to look at lower cost alternatives such as DIY and low cost DMX items to continue show growth. Even though we're trying to move forward and grow (on a zero budget - not easy) unemployment still has me uncertain and undecided if we'll even be doing a 2010 Christmas show.
 
I wish Aurora good fortune and luck and will remain faithful to the product as long as possible.
(just my 2 cents worth)


I'm highly leaning toward canceling this year's LightsOnLogan show.  I will probably put a sign in they yard stating that we're taking a year off to enjoy other displays and will return in 2011.


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http://www.aurorashow.com/">


Posted By: Slinkard
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 1:15pm
Well I have been using Aurora for 3 years (maybe 4) still works just as well as it did the day I bought it.  Still hasn't crashed and as always I can leave the house and not worry bout the show.
Free or paid w/e. I hate seeing the company fold but understand that this is a very small market and only a few of us are even crazy enuff do to this. Most think mr. christmas from Home Depot is animating their lights. Sad but true.
I sincerly thank you for all you have done to make my holidays less stressful.
 
Cheers
 
Slink


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http://www.aurorashow.com/">
Coming soon www.computerizedlights.com


Posted By: TheQueb
Date Posted: 13 May 2010 at 9:54pm
Originally posted by LightsOnLogan

Queb,
You will not need DMX fixtures to take advantage of DMX... the hardware vendors have been gradually opening up their hardware to DMX firmware.  The DIY crowd has done a great deal to push things in this direction.  All this means is that you will use your same hardware (an ACx16 for instance), but drive it with the DMX protocol instead of the D-Light protocol. 
See? lol. That's how much I {don't} know about DMX
 
The only reason that I might venture to another vendor would be for more RGB features like the ones in the http://vimeo.com/11414852 - video for Light Show Pro but that would mean I needed to jump deeper into RGB fixtures, lights, etc...


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80 D-Light-ful Channels
http://www.SoutheastTexasLights.com - Southeast Texas Lights
http://www.frappr.com/dlight - D-Light Users


Posted By: breakbenj
Date Posted: 14 May 2010 at 5:34am
So we will still get a 1.1 version with the full help file soon right?

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Jeff



Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 14 May 2010 at 6:30pm
I have almost the same feeling as baelinc on this one. Having gone through all the ups and downs, it is a shocker to see the newbies will get the program for free. I understand these are hard times but they are hard for everybody. I really don't know what to think. I am lost for words on that one.

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http://www.aurorashow.com/">


Posted By: DisZip
Date Posted: 15 Jun 2010 at 11:20am
I don't seem to have much luck picking Christmas light software. I started by purchasing Spectrum, which shortly after was dropped by D-Light as a product and switched to Aurora (at D-Lights suggestion). Now Aurora is no longer commercial software (and therefore less supported), I am not sure if I should switch to a third product or not?


Posted By: LightChristmas
Date Posted: 17 Jun 2010 at 8:34am
Just my devaluated 2 cents.

Have been with Aurora from Day One. It does what I need it to do with the least possible processing power and the fewest hiccups. There is no tiered pricing (ie crippleware) to hinder any future expansion(s), and as far as tech support, thats what this message board is here for primarily. By using the 'Search' function, you can find resolutions for just about any problem you will encounter. For the unique problems, we'll thats what we're here for.Smile

It's all Bush's fault!LOL




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http://www.aurorashow.com/">


Posted By: LightsOnLogan
Date Posted: 17 Jun 2010 at 9:37am
Aurora will once again be a commercial product once we resume developing version 2.

Presently though, I found us having $70 in the bank, absolutely no sales, and very very little sales potential.  Moving Aurora to freeware for the time being so I can give more time to other projects was essential.  I fully expect that we'll recover from our cash issues and the market will pick back up.  When that happens, then we'll talk about re-commercializing Aurora.

We could have looked at the balance sheet last October and dropped all 1.x fixes and 1.x DMX promises and just said no updates would happen until v2 (since that is where the $$ were at).  Instead, we took a risk in favor of the customer by focusing only on the promises we had already made combined with dramatic expense cutting with hope on the optimistic side of our sales projections.  That risk failed when the sales didn't come through.  We're now in purely survival mode... but we do have a plan to return.  In the meantime, we're being honest with new customers on the level of support this year.  Existing paid customers can still expect the same support here as they always have, but with slower updates to the software (which has been the case for a year now anyway).  It is as simple as that.



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http://www.aurorashow.com/">


Posted By: dowdybrown
Date Posted: 20 Jun 2010 at 12:28pm
Since Aurora is now freeware, it might be good to remove the ability to order it from the main page.

Matt


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http://gleannlochchristmas.com/ - http://gleannlochchristmas.com/


Posted By: Tassleholf
Date Posted: 15 Dec 2010 at 6:26pm

After suffering computer problems I had to install Aurora again, having paid for it a few years ago I see now it is freeware so i am guessing I can just use the freeware unlock code instead of trying to get the guys to issue mine to me.

Don't you just hate it when you lose your HDD's ( all my sequences and my backup cd's got lost when the wife left me and we went our seperate ways ( i still think she took them to P*** me off ))   Angry


Posted By: LightsOnLogan
Date Posted: 15 Dec 2010 at 6:56pm
Yes, you can use the freeware key. Smile

Michael


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http://www.aurorashow.com/">


Posted By: LightsOnLogan
Date Posted: 25 Jan 2011 at 9:56pm
As indicated in the other thread, Aurora is fully supported commercial software once again.  We are now processing sales from our order page.  You can continue to use the freeware key with the 1.0.69 version of Aurora as long as you like, but there are advantages to upgrading.  Upgrading to the paid edition will enable you to use 1.1 when it comes out in March (the freeware key will not work with 1.1).  Hint: we're considering a price change for 1.1, so now would be a good time to upgrade :)

Michael


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http://www.aurorashow.com/">


Posted By: Slinkard
Date Posted: 02 Feb 2011 at 5:42pm
So if we already bought the software, what are our options?

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http://www.aurorashow.com/">
Coming soon www.computerizedlights.com


Posted By: LightsOnLogan
Date Posted: 02 Feb 2011 at 6:38pm
If you've already bought the software then you are covered.  Version 1.1 is included with your current license key.

Michael


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http://www.aurorashow.com/">


Posted By: christmas 01
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2011 at 2:35am
oh thats brilliant news michael what about that for good customer service LOLLOL

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Many hands make christmas lights work



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