SIMPOL is Superbase
Papatuo Holdings Limited, the company that purchased the Superbase intellectual property when Superbase Developers plc was liquidated has also purchased the SIMPOL intellectual property upon the liquidation of Simpol Limited.
It has taken quite a bit of time to get everything in place to bring a unified Superbase back to the market. We have formed a new company, Superbase Software Limited, to handle the business. We have arranged for bank accounts, PayPal accounts, modified the software, and prepared a plan of action and a road map forwards.
We are currently updating the web sites, have created a Facebook page and a Twitter account, and are preparing the changes to deliver the Superbase NG 2.0 release (this is largely the SIMPOL Professional product with additional changes to make using it easier for end-user customers plus the final major tool, the Graphic Report Designer).
Since taking over the product we have released SIMPOL Professional 1.8 in April and 1.83 with significant enhancements in July. A more formal announcement will be made soon about the current SIMPOL Professional state. A free upgrade to Superbase NG 2.0 will be provided to all owners of the release version of SIMPOL Professional.
Our Goals
We at Superbase Software Limited intend to produce great products based on Superbase NG, including end-user products, middleware, and web-based products. We also will continue to make available the same tools we use ourselves to the community at large. We are working on methods of increasing the number of people who are using Superbase NG. We are actively planning a set of tools to make the creation of hosted web applications easier and more accessible to a wider audience. We expect to be here for the long haul and hope that we can welcome you with us on this journey.
Better Together
SIMPOL originally stood for Superbase International Multi-Platform Object Language and was always intended as a next-generation, easier to use and develop with product to replace Superbase. Many things have happened along the way, but in spite of these things, the fact remains that SIMPOL is Superbase, and the two are better off now that they are back together.
The “Better Together” title also applies to our relationship with our customers. We are eager to work together with the Superbase and SIMPOL community to produce a powerful, universally usable tool for the benefit of us all.
We are very happy to be able to re-brand the SIMPOL product line back to Superbase with the next release. We will retain the name SIMPOL as the name of the language, the way it was always intended to be.
Free for Non-Commercial Use?
We are currently thinking about making Superbase NG 2.0 available free for non-commercial use. This is one of the strategies we are considering to help us grow the size of the Superbase community. Commercial use would be defined as any way that you get paid for using the tool or distributing something built with the tool. So building a program just for your own use at home is free, but distributing it for sale requires a development license. Using it to help your church is free if you donate the results, but if you work for the church or some non-profit and get paid to use it, then you are using it commercially.
We would love to hear back from our customers with what they think about this idea.