Some answers to important licensing questions
 

In all the discussions so far related to pricing and licensing, I?ve answered that there were quite a lot of details to work out, and that I would announce everything together as soon as all the pieces were settled. While we do still have a couple of loose ends to tie up, I?m happy to report that a couple of the most important issues have been settled, and I can address some of the most urgent questions about upcoming license changes for vBulletin 4.0.

In previous posts I had recommended that everyone keep their vBulletin licenses current, and there are two important reasons to do so:

1. You will have access to the 4.0 Forum upgrade under the terms of your current license.

2. You will be able to take advantage of a pre-sale discount offer for the new vBulletin Suite that will be available to current licensed customers only.

In a few weeks we?ll be rolling out more information on the release and announcing further details of the new license terms and pricing. Meanwhile, we appreciate your patience.


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Nice one. Thank you. :)

Means if our license is not expired we can download VB 4.0 from VB Member area?
is it so?

That is what it means.

really good idea. otherwise Jelsoft will lose few new user.

Excellent news, at least the forum upgrade bit. I however still have to wait until the news is out about what if any fee is required to upgrade to the suite.

Omg yes, wont have to pay for 4, :P.

my license has been expired :( . so for download new version. first i need to renew that account at cost 60$. right?
than i can download ..

Does that also mean that it will now be an open beta instead of closed due to this change, so developers can upgrade their hacks before v4.0 goes gold? As I for one want to get up to speed asap.

No, Alpha/beta is still going to continue as planned.

Oh well, that sucks big time, as it is going to be so much longer for the hack community to get up to speed. I foresee so many support posts asking why X hack does not work with v4.0. So, you might want to pass that comment on to Ray Morgan etc,. as I am probably not the only one thinking this.

Great news, Now can I ask what the suite includes?
I Bought all three Vbulletin the blog and projects, is the suite a combination of the three ? or is there more ?
The software really is the best forum out there well worth the money.

The vBulletin Suite also comes with their new CMS they are planning, as well as vBulletin forum software, blog and project tools.

Thats good news for now. My owned license doesn't expire until January of 2010

Same here but I plan to purchase at a discount the suite though. :)

I want the whole enchilada, Face book is heavy competition. Besides as an Egomaniac its just great to be loved and adored if not feared and loathed.

Probably it was answered before but what with customers having vbulletin and jelsoft blog active license ? Will they pay for the suite ?

I'll probably purchase it all but i'm not sure yet if i'll install it all right away as i want to make sure all the mods are compatible

That has not been decided on, but it will be announced once the decission has been made.

With the closed Alpha/Beta it will be a much shorter period before a RC or final version is released.

With the old open testing cycle, we where often in Alpha/Beta/RC for up to a half year or even more for a new major version (see 3.0). This means that even though coders can start work on creating modifications, they can not release a final version until the final version of vBulletin is released.

With the new setup, the Alpha/Beta period will be very short, shortly after followed by a public release. Even with coders only getting the chance to develop modifications once production level is reached, the time between the start of Alpha testing and a final version that ocders can write modifications for is a lot shorter. So in the end customers will have the new version, and modifications, quicker then with the old method.

I agree with Marco, even though coders wont be able to start work on their mods etc it wont take as long for a final release.

This may have been answered but... please tell me the admin CP is set up better in 4.0, it is right?

Thank you.

Also anyone know if the facebook livechat type of feature is added to 4.0?

No, it hasn't been. There is a third-party addon called "Cometchat" that you can search for and install. It is a commercial addon and is not listed on this site.

Okay I saw that, but before I bought it, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't being added to this. Thanks :)

They merged your current blog license into your vbulletin software license. They will only be offering a discount to purchase the suite which will contain Vbulletin cms, blogs and project tools. We will have to wait to see how much the discount is. I personally don't want the cms or project tools, and have the blog, so sadly i am going to hope the discount is fair. If you are a new user to vbulletin software, it will probably be a heck of a deal being able to buy a cms, blog system to go with your forum. Existing users may end up in a little different boat.