The wyDay blog is where you find all the latest news and tips about our existing products and new products to come.
I've updated the site to include an "Open Source" tab where you can find all the open source C# projects on wyDay:
I've also updated some of the controls. There is a new SplitButtonout with a few fixes pointed out in the comments. Also, the LinkLabel2 has been updated to correctly inherit the system link color and to allow for user set colors.
And of course the open source wyUpdate has been updated, but I won't turn this into another "BUY! BUY! BUY!" post for wyBuild.
We released wyUpdate a few months ago. Or should I say we released wyUpdate Client, wyUpdate Express Designer, and wyUpdate Professional Designer. Which is what in this flurry of names? Why is everything called wyUpdate?
I know what will clear everything up a new name! Or rather a re-brand. We're renaming the wyUpdate Professional Designer to simply wyBuild. We're also renaming the wyUpdate Client to just wyUpdate.
Much like in the middle ages the name describes the job: wyBuild builds the updates. wyUpdate updates your program.
We're ditching the wyUpdate Express Designer. Not because we hate free software or because we eat puppies. No, it's more complex than that (but puppies are delicious).
We were following the freemium business model: give away a limited (but still useful) version and charge for the pro version. This is stupid for one important reason. We were splitting our time trying to attract free users, when we should've really been making business better for our paying users.
Or to put it another way, we were operating our company like an absurd car dealership. That is, focusing our time giving away free Lexuses to customers in the hope that they would come back and buy a Jaguar. We should have just focused our attention on the Jaguar buyers to begin with.
The feeling most people associate with updates is anxiety. Updates break things: they stop half-way through, or an errors pop-up, or it's so slow you can take 8 coffee break before the update has been applied. In short: pain.
Our job is to remove the pain and anxiety from the update process. We're here to make your users associate a new feeling with updates: happiness. Happiness that they can use the latest versions of your software without dealing with finicky update programs or shoddy patches.
Buy our Jaguar, wyBuild we're here to work with you. We want your customers to be so happy that they'll actively talk about your software and attract new users for you.
wyUpdate, the tiny updater program you include with your program, is still open source. Pop over to the wyUpdate page to download the C# source code.
You don't need to, of course. We include a compiled and optimized version along with wyBuild. The source is there only if you're curious or want to help out.
The main new feature of wyBuild 1.2 is that you can now build your updates from the command line. This way advanced users will be able to better integrate wyBuild into your automation. Read all about it here.
Also included with wyBuild 1.2 comes extra protection for your users. Namely, if your users shuts down their computer while wyUpdate is updating your program, wyUpdate will give them a friendly warning. This warning gives them a safe way to cancel the update and quickly roll back to the previous version of your software.
This protection is to ensure your users always have working software, even if they get impatient.
We've changed the way trial days are counted in wyBuild 1.2. Before we had a 20-consecutive day trial. That is, if you tried our program once at the beginning of the month, forgot about it for 20 days, then tried it again at the end of the month the trial would be expired.
Big mistake.
We designed the trial for automatons instead of for humans. Normal people want to try a program for a few minutes, forget about it for a few weeks, then try it again. That's why wyBuild now has a 14-non-consecutive-day trial. You can try wyBuild once a month for an entire year and still have two trial days left. Or you can use it every day for 14 days straight.
It's your time, it's your choice.
Plus, the trial is only a time trial wyBuild is fully functional during the trial period. You can begin releasing updates to your users before you've even bought a license.
If prose isn't your thing, we have a video introduction to wyBuild. You can use the closed captions if you don't want to hear my New England accent.
If you have a question or want to report bugs you can jump over to the forum you don't even need to register to post.
For the last four years we've been developing wyBuildunder a tackier name: InstantUpdate. Today we're officially dropping both the InstantUpdate name and its slightly perplexing logo for a nonsensical name with an even more perplexing logo. (And it's purple!)
If you've never used wyBuild, here's a quick intro: wyBuild comes in two parts. The first part is wyBuild, obviously, whichyou use to manage your versions and create your updates. wyBuild is also used to generate the second part, wyUpdate, which is the updater program that you include with your application.
wyUpdate is now completely open source. It's licensed under the BSD license (the most liberal open source license) and the zip file containing the C# sources is available for immediate download.
With wyBuild you design the updater client, wyUpdate, by choosing its theme and lanuage. You also manage versions of your software using the tabbed interface.
Additionally, wyBuild has two major features that will help small and large software companies alike. The first of which is version management.
Managing past and future versions of your software is simple. Just drag the files into the wyBuild window. Adding registry modifications is just a simple and intuitive. You won't even need to visit the help documents or the forum (but they're there just in case you get stuck).
The second major feature in wyBuild is patch creation. A patch is the data required to get from one version of a file to another:
The patches created by wyBuild are much smaller than the zipped files that are used with typical update programs. And much much smaller than releasing a new installer for every update to your program.
An example to illustrate my point is Nero Burning ROM. Nero Burning ROM is CD/DVD writing software that has been popular for many years, and Nero is updated frequently. One big problem, though, is their lack of a good update creation and distribution method. Instead of using an updater program like wyUpdate, they release full installers to their existing users. That's over 300 megabytes for very small changes to Nero.
The graph below shows how enormous just the bare minimum installation of Nero Burning ROM is. Notice the tiny size of the update when created with wyBuild (just over a megabyte!):
Because your users care. It's no coincidence that I used Nero Burning ROM as my example. They have a very large user base. Their computer savvy users like to use the latest version of Nero. But every time an update to Nero comes out this same complaint is raised again and again:
Why do I have to download 300 megabytes when all I'm using is the main Nero program?
And that's the non-vulgar version of what's being said about Nero.
For every new release of Nero their reputation should go up not get worse by all the bad buzz surrounding their slow, bloated, distribution system.
Ok, ok. You get it. I'm trying to sell wyBuild. Even for all my shameless plugging, a program like wyBuildis necessary to keep your users happy. Our program can create tiny updates that download quickly and install quickly. This saves you money on bandwidth costs all while keeping your users deliriously happy.
(Hell, you can even create a competing product using the open source wyUpdate. But I think you'll find the $249 is a small price to pay for the monetary benefits of using wyBuild.)
Download wyBuild It's a free 14-day trial of wyBuild that you can use to release updates to your users right now.
Buy wyBuild If youre not satisfied, for any reason, within 90 days you get a full refund. No questions asked. We dont want your money if youre not incredibly happy.