[mono-android] Consider physical deployment with the evaluation version

[Paul Johnson]

Hi,

> I'm doubting I can make an impact but please listen to some feedback from
> someone who just started out with Mono for Android.
>
> Using Visual Studio to develop android applications is really a joy.
> Deploying on the emulator is another experience.
> Its really unworkable slow and it takes the fun out of using and
> experiencing the actual app.

There are a lot of misconceptions over using the emulator. Unless you're 
working on a decent processor with a shed load of memory, the emulator 
is slow. There is no way around it - most emulators, irrespective of 
what they do are slower than the actual device; it's the nature of the 
beast.

Once the emulator is up though, it is much quicker. I tend just to keep 
the emulator booted on my dev box. It saves time!

> I understand that the evaluation version is designed so that the app cannot
> reach the marker place and be used for a commercial activity.
> If this is the only constraint that please rethink how it's currently done.
>
> There are other ways to prevent commercial deployment by for example
> crippling the app, putting a time limit on the execution, show a message box
> every x seconds,...

All of which can be worked around. Face it, this has happened with lots 
of commercial apps and within a day (typically) there is a patch 
somewhere which allows for the nag to be removed.

> My scenario is that I want to become productive on android, ios and WP but I
> first have to pass the learning curve. It will take a few months to get a
> good product and as a single enthousiast I cannot afford to spend 600 $.

I'm sure this is not the case. The cheapest licence is for education 
which works out to be $99, but a typical one is a bit more than this.

> Once the app is finished and I am ready to deploy it to the market place I
> will be ready to buy the licenses.

This is where the argument falls over. You're expecting Xamarin to work 
on an honour system. Face it, if they said "everyone, it's free for 
download - but you must promise to pay us when you go to market", I can 
tell you how long they would last in business - probably slightly less 
than the time it will take you to read this email!

> Please reconsider this as it will make more developers use it to the point
> they have a working app.

To be honest, you can get the working app going on the emulator and show 
it around. Enough people like it buy the licence, charge $1 on the 
marketplace and recoup the losses that way. It's the way of it.

Microsoft do the same thing. Buy the product and what you do with it is 
up to you and they have the same restricted system with the Express 
edition - does most of what you want, but not everything.

Me, I'll renew my licence in September with pleasure. The Xamarin crew 
have been amazingly helpful and supportive and that alone makes it worth 
the money :)

PFJ

P.S. If anyone wishes to bend what I'm saying or subvert it to their own 
arguments, feel free to - you'll end up looking like a bit of a twit as 
what I've said is here for the world to see rather than elsewhere...