I'm sure Squiz peeps have perfect explanation for the dissappearance of the Matrix virtual image download page.
If you remember, it looked like this about 2 months ago:
I just can't find the page to download our favourite Open Source CMS. Where did it go?
I hope this is not another Git-gate!
Hmm, this is concerning. All I see is a "Contact for a demo" page now.
If there is no VM provided, then the code can't be GPL. Am I correct about that?
Guys, I have loved Matrix for almost 10 years now, but making it hard to get the code like this is getting ridiculous.
So in the past 18 months we've lost Bug Tracker, Community Site, CVS repository and now the Virtual Image. It just comes across as Digital Agency with Custom CMS now.
So what next?
My prediction is that;
Here is wishful thinking
Squiz to open up its platform to wider community and businesses with various subscription models; e.g Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
Bronze subscription - slightly older build (1 version down) and free for anyone under GNU.
Silver subscription - latest build version at £30-50pm (hosting not provided)
Gold subscription - latest build with recommended stack and Edit+ hosted with Squiz platform from £100pm (configurable server setup at extra cost)
Platinum subscription - latest build, edit+, funnelback and hosted with Squiz from £200pm (configurable server and search at extra cost)
Optional purchasable extras include Squiz Plus, Edge, Support Tickets and SLA.
So in the past 18 months we've lost Bug Tracker, Community Site, CVS repository and now the Virtual Image. It just comes across as Digital Agency with Custom CMS now.
So what next?
My prediction is that;
- SLA prices will dramatically increase and support ticket will continue to increase as there is no competition and customers will be locked into the eco system.
- It will become even more difficult to hire someone with Squiz skill and training new employees is going to be hard sale considering most will be coming from Open Source development.
- For organisations loosing someone with Squiz skill will be massive hit on resource due to the process of hiring and training in the future (takes 6 - 12 months at least!!)
- Upgrade lead times is going to get worse from average of 4-6 months to probably a year, otherwise it will be optional additional payment similar to Edit+ model
- Existing advocates of Squiz will move on and there will be no community left.
- There will be so many frustrated web managers / developers as the closed system does not allow easy way to test developments without paying for extra server/build at considerable cost.
- Squiz core platform will forever play catchup game vs other CMS.
- Personal C.V with Squiz CMS does not hold any weight when it becomes proprietary platform.
Here is wishful thinking
Squiz to open up its platform to wider community and businesses with various subscription models; e.g Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
Bronze subscription - slightly older build (1 version down) and free for anyone under GNU.
Silver subscription - latest build version at £30-50pm (hosting not provided)
Gold subscription - latest build with recommended stack and Edit+ hosted with Squiz platform from £100pm (configurable server setup at extra cost)
Platinum subscription - latest build, edit+, funnelback and hosted with Squiz from £200pm (configurable server and search at extra cost)
Optional purchasable extras include Squiz Plus, Edge, Support Tickets and SLA.
This is excellent.
Apologies guys, the VM is still available, just under a new URL: http://manuals.matrix.squizsuite.net/test-squiz-matrix/
"Evaluate" wasn't really the right word for this page so we thought "Test" made more sense. Apologies for the confusion. I think the remap stopped working.
Phew!!
Out of interest how would one navigate from Squiz website or Manual website to download it?
The other information that I couldn’t find easily was Squiz GNU license information on your website. Can you please point me to the right direction.
Thanks.
We've made the link to that page available from the releases page: http://manuals.matrix.squizsuite.net/releases(after the matrix release table), you can also find it in search by just searching for "test".
The Matrix licence is available within the VM code itself, its a txt file sitting in the root of the Matrix directory called "licence.txt".
Hi all,
Just wondering whether older VMs are available? Looking for 4.18.0 specifically, to test a modified import php script against.
Cheers,
Rod
I asked about it internally for you, but unfortunately we don’t retain older versions of the VMs.
Thanks Marcus, no biggy just thought I'd ask.
Hi,
When can we expect to get latest Virtual Images e.g 5.3.0.0?
The image that is on there is currently over a year old. Is anyone actually keep it up to date? If I remember correctly public repositsory was shut towards the end of October 2014, this means during the entire time we've had this 5.1.5.0 image as the only means to test.
What's the point of evening having an image if you can't test the latest?
We will be uploading one soon, we left the 5.2 one as went so long without adding it we were closer to releasing 5.3, so we thought we'd wait until 5.3 was released and update it for that. Hopefully have it up there after the next MICRO release.
Thanks for the update Bart.
Do you have estimate timeframe for micro release for 5.3.X?
Thanks.
Scheduled to be released this week. :)
Looks like it was released yesterday.
Bart can you action the VM now? :)
It's on its way, waiting for our server admins to provision it. Will hopefully have it up before the end of the week.
The VM has now been updated to 5.3.1.0. and is available from http://manuals.matrix.squizsuite.net/test-squiz-matrix
Please note that we had to move to the VM to a VirtualBox image as it was easier to manage and also VirtualBox provides a free player for both PC and Mac.
Awesome news!
The VM has now been updated to 5.3.1.0. and is available from http://manuals.matrix.squizsuite.net/test-squiz-matrix/
Please note that we had to move to the VM to a VirtualBox image as it was easier to manage and also VirtualBox provides a free player for both PC and Mac.
That link doesn't work for me and is the eval a full working model? I've been told it's not suitable for an enterprise environment. Needs to be a bit more transparency before I finally give up and move to Drupal
That link doesn't work for me and is the eval a full working model? I've been told it's not suitable for an enterprise environment. Needs to be a bit more transparency before I finally give up and move to Drupal
There are some extra characters on the end of the URL that the forum added. Just remove those. It is: