I am one of those codgers old enough to remember Delphi 6 personal, and the Turbo Delphi era (the next free edition name for delphi), and Delphi Starter, and each time the pattern is the same:

1. Announce it.

2. Hope it works.

3. Wander away and lose interest.

Let's hope that DOES NOT happen this time. Delphi needs this "free" starter edition. I wholeheartedly agree with the wiser and saner heads who will from time to time argue that this needs to come back if it's currently in a hiatus. Not dead, you understand, just resting, like that parrot in Monty Python.

With or without a free edition DELPHI IS NOT DEAD, but with a free edition it's healthier. We need a tools ecosystem, that's an essential part of modern software development. A healthy ecosystem needs us to be able to build free stuff for Delphi. With a free edition of Delphi, I hope it will always be possible to run continuous integration servers, for example, for open source projects written in and for Delphi development, and not need to worry "how do I build and run its unit tests and deliver the installers for our product/package".

We need encryption libraries. We need REST server and rest client frameworks and add-ons thereto. We need something approaching the breadth and depth of the ecosystems of Java and .Net, if Delphi is to continue to exist as a sensible way to work in a web-everywhere connected world.

So delphi Starter, ahem, Community, is back. I for one am glad.