Question for the Komodo Team

[FlavusSnow]

To be a little blunt, is the plan for Komodo to go commercial with an SMP version?

I've seen many comments on this forum that indicate that those people believe the SMP version will cost money, but I can't find where someone has asked the question. I do recall a thread where Don was very vague, and probably intentionally so, when someone had speculated that Komodo would never be commercial. But I wonder how much of this was Don saying "never say never" and how much of it might have been "we've planned all along for Komodo to be commercial".

So anyways, Don or Larry care to comment and maybe shed a little light on your plans? I'm certainly interested on where this is headed.

Not that it matters, but I've never paid money for an engine and don't plan on it in the future (unless you count some of the chessmaster series, but I dont...I was buying a training suite).

[Albert Silver]

Not that it matters, but I've never paid money for an engine and don't plan on it in the future.

That is your loss.

[Dann Corbit]

Not that it matters, but I've never paid money for an engine and don't plan on it in the future.

That is your loss.

I (on the other hand) have purchased at least one instance of almost every commercial engine that exists {software engines only, not dedicated machines}.

In my case, it's the incurable disease of the collector.

[Albert Silver]

Not that it matters, but I've never paid money for an engine and don't plan on it in the future.

That is your loss.

I (on the other hand) have purchased at least one instance of almost every commercial engine that exists {software engines only, not dedicated machines}.

In my case, it's the incurable disease of the collector.

Same here. I think the commercials that (deservedly) got the most purchases are Hiarcs and Rebel with 3-4 each.

[benstoker]

Not that it matters, but I've never paid money for an engine and don't plan on it in the future.

That is your loss.

I (on the other hand) have purchased at least one instance of almost every commercial engine that exists {software engines only, not dedicated machines}.

In my case, it's the incurable disease of the collector.

Same here. I think the commercials that (deservedly) got the most purchases are Hiarcs and Rebel with 3-4 each.

And, that is your loss.

[lkaufman]

To be a little blunt, is the plan for Komodo to go commercial with an SMP version?

So anyways, Don or Larry care to comment and maybe shed a little light on your plans? I'm certainly interested on where this is headed."


We have said all along that we want to keep the single-core version free, but when we make an MP version it will be commercial. We don't expect to get rich off of this business model, but if Don is to continue to work full-time on Komodo it needs to start bringing in some income fairly soon. For myself I'm willing to work hard on improving the engine primarily to have a top-rated engine with human-like evals that I can use for analysis, but I don't need an MP engine for this as it is more efficient to have each core analyzing a different position at the same time. So from my perspective I would like to see some financial reward for working on an MP version.

I very much like the idea that anyone will be able to enjoy our program for free, but if you want maximum performance by running it on multiple cores at once that should cost something. I also think that anyone who cannot afford a modern computer will hardly be in a position to spend money on chess software, so I'm glad that those people will be able to use the program for free. But those who buy quads and octals and want to use them at full strength for chess should be willing to part with a few dollars (or Euros) for first-rate software.

[tomgdrums]

Not that it matters, but I've never paid money for an engine and don't plan on it in the future.

That is your loss.

I (on the other hand) have purchased at least one instance of almost every commercial engine that exists {software engines only, not dedicated machines}.

In my case, it's the incurable disease of the collector.

Same here. I think the commercials that (deservedly) got the most purchases are Hiarcs and Rebel with 3-4 each.

And, that is your loss.

Hiarcs and REbel are great!