Why JuliaRun is non-free?

Community
1

Hello,

JuliaComputing offers a set of product that we can taste free (JuliaPro, JuliaFin, JuliaDB, JuliaBox). All the products are available for free download (they come with some fewer features than their professional counterparts). However, JuliaRun is not available to free download. Is there any special reason for this?

Best regards

Oscar

2

I don’t work for Julia Computing, but I would suggest contacting them directly to ask about a demo (info@juliacomputing.com).

A few general thoughts:

  • I want JC to build a sustainable business so they can support the language long-term.
  • it makes tremendous sense to charge for tools interfacing with non-free software/data sources/platforms which represent significant investment in their own right, to access, and significant income potential (especially in the case of finance-related tools)
  • any time you talk about “cloud” or “deployment at scale” there is usually a budget involved…
  • in research situations with deeded/“free” compute time available but not necessarily fungible budget — get in touch anyway. If the project is interesting they may be willing to provide some in-kind support or even collaborate (but, understandably, this might not be advertised)
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3

Thanks Isaiah. I do work for Julia Computing :slight_smile: and Isaiah pretty much gave a pretty good explanation.

I would also like to add that for complex systems tools like JuliaRun and JuliaBox, we have not seen much appetite for contributions since they are not easy to get running, need to run on cloud, and require complex setup.

That said - if you are looking to use it, do contact info@juliacomputing.com and especially for universities, we are happy to offer free trials and after that, at cost on the cloud.

-viral

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4

I would also like to point out that in the case of JuliaPro and JuliaDB, the versions from Julia Computing do not have any extra features that are not already open source. JuliaFin does include some components that are proprietary.

-viral

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