Against telemetry data: RubyMine free of charge for non-commercial use
After other JetBrains IDEs, RubyMine is now also available free of charge if users use it for non-commercial purposes.
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JetBrains has announced that it will make its Ruby-on-Rails development environment RubyMine available free of charge if users use it for non-commercial purposes. Examples include independent further training, participation in open source development without commercial benefits or hobby development. However, the license for non-commercial use does not make it possible to prevent anonymous usage data from being passed on to the software company JetBrains.
The other JetBrains IDEs WebStorm, RustRover, Rider and CLion have been available in a free edition for non-commercial use since 2024.
Almost complete range of functions
As JetBrains explains in more detail, the features of the paid and free editions of RubyMine only differ in one respect: the pair programming feature "Code With Me". This exists in a premium and a community edition, whereby the latter is included in the non-commercial RubyMine. It has a limited range of functions compared to the premium edition. These include a limit of up to three instead of up to 50 guests per session and a time limit of 30 minutes for sessions.
In the announcement, JetBrains provides detailed instructions on how to activate the license for non-commercial use. It is issued for one year and is automatically renewed if developers have used the license at least once within the last six months of its term. Under certain circumstances, developers can apply for a refund for a subscription that has already been paid for.
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The price: telemetry without opt-out
The catch is that users of the non-commercial edition cannot opt out of the transfer of anonymized data to JetBrains. Telemetry can include, for example, frameworks, file templates used in the project, actions performed, and other interactions with the IDE features. However, personal data should be excluded from this.
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