Progress 9 evaluation

[mossvector]

Hi,

Is it possible to download an evaluation copy of Progress for training purposes?

thanks,
Steve

 

[jongpau]

Hi Steve,

I don't think there is such a thing anymore. Progress used to have a "test drive" license, which you could purchase for a very small amount of $$, but that has been cancelled - I think around the time version 6 or 7 was released.

You are best of to contact Progress in your country/region to see what (if any) options there are. If you do find something, do let us know - I am sure there are more people interested...

 

[mossvector]

Hi Paul,



Thanks for the suggestion. FYI, I did contact Progress with regards to this. They seemed quite helpful until they realized I wasn’t a big company, but just one person wanting to expand their skill base. They suddenly started ignoring my email!

 

[jongpau]

Yes I know, it is hard for a "sole trader" to stay in the loop with new versions etc. Unless you are willing and able to fork out a whole lot of money for training and licenses of course. Funny, when there are so many contractors around (I think) that work for themselves.

If you don't have any Progress knowledge yet it is very hard (not to mention expensive) to get it when you are on your own. If you do have experience then the best thing (I think) is to keep working with it and try to get yourself jobs/contracts that offer you the option to slide into newer versions... Also, when new versions are released there is always the option of downloading the documentation and release information from the Progress website and then reading through that to see what's new etc.

How did others (preferably contractors/people that work for themselves) get their Progress knowledge and how do you stay up to date?? Anybody care to share their experiences (or should I start a new thread for this)?

 

[ccotter3]

I see this as a serious shortcoming of Progress. You can easily get free versions of .Net both the SDK and the Visual Studio Express products with plenty of on-line WebCasts and other useful training info that are also free. On the Java side almost everything is totally free and there is alot of information available on-line as well. I started with a Progress Version 4 test-drive and the rest was OJT from there. I expect if the test-drive wasn't available back then I would never have gotten into the Progress realm. I would really like to see Progress provide evaluation versions of their products in a freely downloadable form as they do with Sonic (same company, right?). I would also like to see some kind of "Universal Subscription" like MS has that provides a flat yearly fee and provides access to all Progress products that are required for development. I have had an MSDN Universal Subscription for two years now and have found it "priceless". Just my 2 cents from a Progress and MS Veteran.

 

[jongpau]

Yep, I'd also like to see the test drive coming back (by the way, I first used Progress with a version 5.2 Test Drive). Nowadays they don't even have to provide any books like they did in the old days since everything is available on edoc cd anyway. I wouldn't even mind having to pay a couple of dollars (say up to $100) to obtain a time limited version. Of course, the more I would have to pay, the longer it should work :awink: But realistically a 90 day evaluation version would be a good thing