Delphi 13 Community Edition Is Now Available

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Delphi 13 Community Edition’s release revives interest in the long‑standing Object Pascal toolchain, with many recalling its strengths as a rapid, native Windows GUI builder and its influence on early 2000s shareware and commercial apps. Commenters contrast Delphi’s polished RAD experience and language evolution with free alternatives like Lazarus/FreePascal, but criticize Embarcadero’s high commercial pricing, intrusive registration and sales tactics, limited Linux support, and community‑edition revenue caps. Overall, Delphi is seen as technically capable but increasingly confined to legacy and niche use, while open-source tools capture most new Object Pascal projects.

Perceived strengths of Delphi

  • Many recall Delphi (and Turbo Pascal) as extremely productive, especially for desktop GUI apps.
  • The VCL GUI builder is repeatedly described as faster and more powerful than contemporaneous Visual Studio resource editors or WinForms.
  • RAD-style drag‑and‑drop with non-visual components (e.g., database connections) made functional apps possible in minutes.
  • Several admired long‑lived commercial apps built by small teams or individuals in Delphi (e.g., diff tools, editors, domain-specific tools).

Language and ecosystem discussion

  • Object Pascal is seen as tidy, readable, and good for long‑term maintenance, but also verbose and sometimes “horrible” to program in.
  • Some see it as a strong “better C” candidate: safer, clearer, easy Windows API calls via calling-convention decorations.
  • Others criticize Delphi’s standard library organization as messy and the RAD patterns as prone to “god objects.”
  • Historical side topics: Delphi.NET era, later RemObjects/Oxygene, Modula/Oberon lineage as “tidier” successors.

Lazarus / FreePascal and other alternatives

  • Lazarus + FreePascal are widely mentioned as the open-source, cross‑platform Object Pascal option.
  • Reports say Lazarus is quite capable for native desktop apps and has improved significantly (esp. 4.x), though still behind Delphi in IDE polish and debugging.
  • Some note incompatibilities (e.g., BPL, newer Delphi language features, Hi‑DPI) and that Delphi still leads language evolution.
  • A few prefer Lazarus precisely to avoid Embarcadero’s proprietary stack and business practices.

Licensing, pricing, and accessibility

  • Strong criticism of Embarcadero’s pricing: thousands of dollars for commercial SKUs, plus annual fees, especially for database editions.
  • Community Edition is appreciated but seen as too restricted: revenue cap (~$5k/year) is effectively “students only” for many.
  • Some lament that in the 90s tools like Turbo Pascal were cheap and accessible; a low‑cost modern equivalent is desired.
  • Several recount friction: mandatory registration, broken templates out of the box, aggressive sales follow‑ups.

Platforms and tooling

  • IDE now 64‑bit, which is welcomed compared to older 32‑bit demos.
  • Cross‑platform support exists mainly from a Windows IDE to other targets (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android); Linux IDE support is repeatedly noted as missing.
  • Some argue Linux is better served by Lazarus; others point out Delphi apps can often run under Wine.

Company and business practices

  • Embarcadero is heavily criticized as mismanaged and private‑equity‑driven, “milking” a shrinking legacy base.
  • Allegations include intrusive telemetry/“spyware” in the IDE and legal threats around trial use.
  • The sales process (phone calls, pushy upsell) is widely disliked and feels outdated.

Is Delphi “dead”?

  • Some declare Delphi “dead” or only for legacy maintenance; others counter with ongoing releases, conferences, and active corporate users.
  • Consensus: the tech remains capable and beloved by many, but the ecosystem is aging and largely absent from new greenfield/startup work.