When the first beta’s of e was released, it had a 30 day trial period, after which you had to buy a license to keep using the program. This was primarily based on experiences with other projects, where the transition from free to for-pay had resulted in a backslash from the user community.

This was a fine strategy when e was supposed to be simple editor, tightly focused on collaboration, which would be quickly out of beta. But the introduction of TextMate bundle support largely increased the scope and ability of the program, and greatly extended the beta period.

Based on thoughtful feedback from many users (many of whom had bought their own licenses), I have decided to make it possible to keep using the program beyond the trial period. This will stay possible for as long as the program is in beta state.

When you register e, the license is bound to you, and not to one specific computer. This means that you can use you license on as many computers as you like. There is also no limit on platforms, so it will also be valid on future versions for Linux or any other OS.

The license is valid for one year (time in beta does not count). After that minor updates are free but there will be an upgrade fee for major updates (2.0).

There is no greater encouragement than when users show that they like the program enough to buy it. So to show how much I appreciate those who do register while it is still in beta, all licenses being bought during the beta period will be extended to include the next major update + one more year of free updates.