Viral by incentive?
Posted by Gavin Bowman on Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 9:40 AM
I've been watching VistaDB for a little while now, the author sometimes posts on JoS, and from a quick scan over the site it looks like it could be a good option for us.
Now for the interesting part: for posting this announcement here on my blog, Vista Software will give me a free copy of Vista DB. Clearly, I can't resist an offer like that when I've been giving the product the eye for a while. But what if I hadn't? I think I'd feel a bit unclean if I posted an announcement about something I wasn't really into just for a freebie...
VistaDB 2.1 database for .NET has been released
This 2.1 update includes over 60 improvements, including new support for .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio .NET 2005. VistaDB is a small-footprint, embedded SQL database alternative to Jet/Access, MSDE and SQL Server Express 2005 that enables developers to build .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 applications. Features SQL-92 support, small 500KB embedded footprint, free 2-User VistaDB Server for remote TCP/IP data access, royalty free distribution for both embedded and server, Copy 'n Go! deployment, managed ADO.NET Provider, data management and data migration tools. Free trial is available for download.
- Learn more about VistaDB
- Repost this to your blog and receive a FREE copy of VistaDB 2.1!
Hmm... see, now I don't know how to feel. This is a product I feel like I would have eventually posted about, just regular viral word of mouth after I'd tried it or chosen it for one of my products. I'm genuinely interested in it, and I'm genuinely excited to get a free copy, but I don't seem to have the same warm fuzzy feeling as I normally have when I post a blog link to an interesting site or product.
If you're interested in a cool looking embedded database, I'd certainly suggest you take a look at VistaDB (if you have a blog, you might even want to get a free copy). We've embedded SQLite in the past, but have been wanting to replace it for a while. When I started searching for a more .NET centric replacement, VistaDB was the only one I found that I took the time to bookmark.
As for Viral-by-Incentive, colour me conflicted. I really hope that Vista publish some results somewhere (even on JoS, please?), or let us know how this experiment turns out.
4 Comments:
Gavin, thanks for posting. I want you to feel "warm and fuzzy" about VistaDB, so let me say that you are helping us get the word out to other .NET developers that may need our software. Please know that i went to each blog site and invited each the blogger personally. It took hours for me to visit each site and invite you guys, so it's awesome to see people helping us in return. That's totally worth us giving you guys some free software away. It's a classic win-win :)
Anthony.
Thanks Anthony. I do really appreciate the software, and I'm looking forward to using it. I wouldn't have posted the announcement at all if I wasn't interested in the product. I guess the incentive just made me feel a bit conflicted about the post.
I'm sure that the next time I mention your software here it'll be because I'm happy with what it's done for me.
BTW Gavin, i changed the wording on our site to let bloggers use their own words to mention VistaDB 2.1. Maybe that'll bring some warm and fuzzies into this?
Anthony.
Thanks for the update. I guess that sweetens the deal a little bit... Although, I'd still think it was important to disclose the fact that I'm getting something free for making the announcement.
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