We're pleased to announce the new VIPM Community Edition, which brings "pro-like" package building and configuration management features to open source developers and noncommercial, nonacademic users.
VIPM Community Edition!
We're excited to announce that VIPM 2020 will allow noncommercial, nonacademic users to activate a "Community" Edition of VIPM with "pro-like" package building and configuration management features. Note that this is different from VIPM Free (for commercial and academic users), which will still exist.
The intent of this new edition is to allow LabVIEW community members to create and share free, open-source add-ons with the LabVIEW community.
Overview of VIPM Community Edition:
- It’s completely free for non-commercial, non-academic use, and for building free, open source tools for the community (see #3, below).
- It provides all professional package building and configuration management features, except for (A) package licensing and activation, (B) password protection of during package builds, and (C) programatic APIs.
- Companies can use it to create open-source tools for the community. Such tools must be licensed under an OSI Approved open source license and must (A) include all source code, (B) be made publicly available, (C) be free of charge, (D) allow modification, and (E) allow redistribution of originals and modifications.
- You can try it out now by signing up for VIPM 2020 Beta.
- The final release will be announced by May 2020, in time for the release of LabVIEW 2020
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
If I work for a company, can I use VIPM Community Edition to create packages for the community?
Yes, if the packages you're distributing are free of charge, made publicly available, and are open source (meaning: you allow others to see and edit the code, and use it in their own applications, per an industry standard open source license), then you can use VIPM Community Edition to create/develop/build your packages.
Which features does VIPM Community Edition include?
VIPM Community Edition allows users to access advanced package building (e.g. most Pro package building features) and configuration management (e.g. create/edit VIPC files) features. It does NOT provide advanced licensing, password protection, or Pro repository management/client features. However, if you're looking to share your free, open-source tools with the community, we've got more exciting news for you, coming soon...
Which licenses do you recommend for open source tools?
The BSD license (a.k.a. the "three clause BSD license") is recommended for open source LabVIEW tools, since it is very simple and is compatible with commercial applications such as those created by LabVIEW developers.
Try VIPM 2020 Community Edition today!
Want to try VIPM 2020 Community Edition right now? Sign up for the VIPM 2020 Beta, today.
We're looking forward to your feedback and hearing how VIPM 2020 helps you build better LabVIEW applications.
