As many of you are already aware, we released PDQ Deploy Pro 1.4 this week. A very big thanks to all of the beta testers who provided feedback and suggestions. We were able to kill a lot of bugs, implement a few enhancements and get some great ideas for future versions.
I won’t go into all of the details of what’s new in 1.4, that’s all available from the original beta announcement. The new features have been well received so far, and we’re excited about upcoming improvements.
Where to now?
There are a number of improvements in this new version that we want to get into the free version of PDQ Deploy ASAP, particularly improvements with the user interface. The free version is getting a bit long in the tooth and could use some refreshing. After a thorough examination of our development processes we determined that it would be in everyone’s interest to merge the Free and Pro versions of PDQ Deploy into one product. This application will have two modes: “Free Mode” and “Pro Mode”. Enabling “Pro Mode” is just a matter of entering a product key, and we will continue to have trial keys like we do now for anyone that wants to try the Pro features.
This will have a number of advantages. It will make it easier to move up to Pro from Free as the interface will be the same and there will be no need to re-install. It will also make it faster for us to move Pro features into Free, since they only need to be built and released once. Version 1.5 will be the first “merged” version, so keep an eye out for it and let us know what features you would like to see.
Again, thank you to everyone who provided bug reports or feature ideas, it’s all been a big help.
