Well, basically, if you don’t need commercial support.
At ESUG, the GemStone/S team announced that the free web edition of GemStone/S has had its limits raised. Maximum repository size is now 16GB (up from 4), shared page cache is 2GB (up from 1), CPU limit is 2 (up from 1), and the limit on the total number of objects in the repository has been eliminated. So if it was possible to fit ‘em in 16GB, you could keep track of 2^40 objects (approx. 1 trillion).
You can upgrade an existing GLASS installation using the updated key files available here.
It boggles my mind that this sort of technology is available for free. Our projects are almost exclusively GLASS-based now, and all of them are running well within the limits of the new free license. Performance is great, customers are happy, and our developers love it. Kudos to GemStone for a great product!
I decided to go with GemStone also. However I wished they would just offer a simple scheme like xy thousands EUR a year. I like to honor good work and support but I can not help and see the pay-some-percentage as good.
My customers are “just” users. They do not care about the used technology, but I want qualified support if need be. I simply do not understand why Gemstone offers such kind of license to small development groups as mine…