Most of my readers are probably aware of Red Gate’s decision to no longer offer a free edition of Reflector, the .NET assembly decompiler and analyzer. Much has already been said about the decision, and I am not going to jump in to debate the politics/ethics of the decision at this time. The fact is, Reflector is a great utility for any .NET developer’s toolbox. I think that, in the end, this move is going to create some competition in the market and hopefully drive Reflector and its competitors to deliver better, more feature-rich tools. We have already seen a couple of free alternatives pop up (here and here).
Red Gate has heard the concerns of the community and contacted me about running a promotion to help promote some goodwill. Over the next two weeks, you will have two chances to enter a contest sponsored by Red Gate. There will be 50 winners, each receiving a license for .NET Reflector Professional. There are two ways to enter:
- Leave a comment on this blog post. At the end of the contest I will choose, at random, 25 winners.
- Follow me on Twitter and tweet this message. I will choose 25 random winners from the list of tweets.
Hey @alvinashcraft. I want a copy of Reflector 7 from @redgate. #dewdrop
Here are a few rules/disclaimers/disclosures:
- You can only win one license. If the same person is chosen in both the comments and tweets, another random name will be drawn.
- The contest begins today, February 21, 2011 and ends on Friday, March 4, 2011.
- Winners will be contacted no later than Tuesday, March 8, 2011.
- As a Microsoft MVP and Friend of Red Gate, I have free NFR licenses for Reflector and ANTS Profiler for personal use. I have not been compensated by Red Gate in any other way.
- Gifts, bribes, complements, etc. will have NO influence on the outcome of this contest.
Good luck and thanks for reading The Dew!