Hello, my employer has instructed my small team of developers to install MyEclipse as it is "required for our application." So I pulled the installer from our shared drive, and installed MyEclipse only to find that I couldn't do anything without a product key. I asked my manager for a key and he responded that I need to use the OLD MyEclipse installer because that version will function without purchasing a license. So now I'm stuck using an old version of the software that throws a popup in my face every time I open a new window because management is too cheap to buy a license. This feels wrong and a little bit illegal, what should I do?

Decoy9999,

I have escalated your issue to a senior member. They will get back to you.

Decoy9999,

First, let me thank you for your integrity in reporting the issue and for actually feeling a bit of remorse of the situation you've been placed in.

It's really unfortunate that short-sighted managers don't realize that the inefficiencies introduced by the time you spend in dismissing nag dialogs and having your stream of thought disrupted is far more expensive to your project than the paltry $31.75 that a standard license would cost.

When we introduced MyEclipse we set the price to be affordable by the individual developer, not the companies that employ them. That pricing strategy is how we disrupted the IDE market and became so popular. And even though we introduce new editions from time to time, the Standard Edition is still just $31.75. So, what I'd recommend is that you do what thousands of developers do when their boss is too stingy to provide the tools they need to succeed -- just buy your own, be hugely productive, and sleep well at night.

All the best,