Where can I find a "Turbo" or "Lite" version of Delphi?

Question

I have a co-worker with a strong background in Ruby that is interested in getting started with Delphi and native development. However, I understand that Turbo Delphi (based on Delphi 2006) is no longer available for download.

So...where does that leave him? Is there any low cost or introductory version of Delphi available legally somewhere? Or is there an offering on the horizon from Embarcadero?

Note: Please don't suggest any legally questionable versions, as that is not an option we will consider.

UPDATED: To sum up all answers the only legal and free version of Delphi that you can download and install now (unless you already have a personal license for Delphi 7 Personal or Turbo Delphi) is Delphi Community Edition.

And the next closest thing is the Lazarus IDE and the Free-Pascal compiler.

Angiosperm

you can still find turbo delphi on internet(via non-official sources)...i know its a discontinued product but technically its not illegal to use it in my humble opinion. google:'download turbo delphi' – Corwun

There used to be a student edition which was cheaper - if he is a student – Cleric

Hmm, what was the license like on the long discontinued Kylix? That was Delphi for Linux and might have had a slightly less retrictive license – Cleric

Omair: the turbo delphi is only valid after registration, and you are only allowed to use it after registration afaik. And registration is no longer available. So if you registered in the past it is legal, otherwise not. – Anile

Don't use legally questionable versions that the answerers advise you here - buy a legal version or use an illegal one :). – Cimon

The pro version, if you own a previous delphi was pretty reasonable - $399 US I think. I really do think they need a personal-new-user-license that $200 or just under that, to build the delphi user community. All we can do is wait, I guess. – Sortie

Answer 1

Since July of 2018 there is a Free Community Edition of Delphi.

At the moment the Delphi Community Edition supports both VCL and FireMonkey as well as building for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, and is a feature rich IDE (compared to Turbo Delphi) with a limited license. In terms of features the new Community Edition is much, much, much better than past Starter or Turbo editions.

It's targeted at individual developers or companies with total revenue less than 5000 USD and less than 5 developers in the organization (eg. freelance developers, startups, students, non-profits). Note that the total revenue threshold includes all your projects and contracts, no matter if the Community Edition was used in those projects or not.

The Delphi Community Edition comes with a 1 year license. Once it expires you have to reinstall the Community Edition and accept the new Community license (license terms might have changed by then). In this regard the Community Edition differs from Turbo Delphi, which was kind of "use forever" once installed with a personal license.

As another side note, the Community license does not allow transfering the command line compiler to other machines.

Some quotes from the Delphi Community Edition FAQ:

Community Edition is both designed to allow individuals and startups to bootstrap their vision until annual revenues reach $5,000 at which point a Professional Edition license can be purchased.

If you're an individual you may use Community Edition to create apps for your own use and apps that you can sell until your revenues reach $5,000 per year.

If you're a small company or organization without revenue (or up to $5,000 per year in revenue), you can also use the Community Edition. Once your company's total revenue reaches US $5,000 per year, or your team expands to more than 5 developers, you can move up to an unrestricted commercial license with Professional Edition.

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You may sell any apps or components developed with the Community Edition under the Community Edition license until your annual revenue exceeds US $5,000 or local currency equivalent. Please see license terms here.

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Can I sell my apps or components built with the Community Edition?

A Professional, Enterprise or Architect edition license is required for developing or deploying any apps or components within any company with total company revenues exceeding US $5,000 or local currency equivalent.

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If I work for a company with more than US $5,000 in revenue, can I still download Delphi Community Edition or C++Builder Community Edition for my own personal use?

You can download Delphi Community Edition or C++Builder Community Edition as an individual and use it to develop applications for your personal use and use it to create software for you to sell (up to US $5,000 in revenue, see License Agreement for details).

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How can I get a new 1 year key after my current CE key expires?

Users will be able to request a new 1 year key through the website. That key will be > applicable to the current CE edition that’s available for download at that time. We will assist you to stay current and up to date, always on the latest version.

As Marco Cantu said Long live to Delphi!

Semiology

Answer 2

This with this should be close enough. It speaks the language at least.

Succumb

To be noted, this is not Delphi, it's Lazarus with the FreePascal compiler. – Shaggy

@Cosmin, yes, this is not Delphi; but it is the closest freeware stuff to Delphi. Delphi itself has no freeware SKU, and based on Michael Rozlog, and Nick Hodges in their Delphi Podcasts, they have no plan for providing any freeware SKU. The most you might see in future, should be a cheaper entry level SKU. – Staff

It is more Delphi than Prism :-) – Anile

Answer 3

Extracts from "About Lazarus":

So just what is Lazarus? Lazarus is the class libraries for Free Pascal that emulate Delphi. Free Pascal is a GPL'ed compiler that runs on Linux, Win32, OS/2, 68K and more. Free Pascal is designed to be able to understand and compile Delphi syntax, which is of course OOP. Lazarus is the part of the missing puzzle that will allow you to develop Delphi like programs in all of the above platforms. Unlike Java which strives to be a write once run anywhere, Lazarus and Free Pascal strives for write once compile anywhere. Since the exact same compiler is available on all of the above platforms it means you don't need to do any recoding to produce identical products for different platforms.

Yeah, but what about the GUI? What widget set are you using? That is the neat part. You decide. Lazarus is being developed to be totally and completely API independent. Once you write your code you just link it against the API widget set of your choice. If you want to use GTK+, great! If you want it to be Gnome compliant, great! As long as the interface code for the widget set you want to use is available you can link to it. If it isn't available, well you can write it.

For example. Let's say you are creating a product on Windows using the standard Windows widgets. Now you want to create a Linux version. First you decide what widget set you want to use. Let's assume you want to use gtk+. So you copy the code over to your Linux development machine, compile, and link against the gtk+ interface unit. That's it. You've now just created a Linux version of the Windows product without any additional coding.

At this point in the development we are using Win32, gtk+, Carbon and QT as our API widget set. As soon as Lazarus reaches a 1.0 release developers will be able to start to create the interface unit to tie the LCL (Lazarus Component Libraries) to other widget sets.

So is this thing really RAD like Delphi? It sure is. Is it totally completed? No not yet.The over all IDE is complete and can be used for most programming needs. Several aspects of the project are still in need of help. Hint. Hint.

Can I use my existing Delphi code? Some of it yes. If the code is standard Delphi pascal and it uses the standard components found in Delphi then the answer is yes. If it uses some specific database, OCX, or DCU then the answer would be no. These items are specific to Windows and would only work on and within Windows. However, if you are only looking to create a Windows product using Free Pascal and Lazarus then the answer would be yes. This hasn't been added to the LCL yet but it should be possible in the future.

Can I create commercial products with this? Yes. The code for the Free Pascal compiler is licensed under the GPL. This means that it is open source, free, whatever name you want to stick to it. You can modify the code if you wish but you MUST distribute those changes or make them available to others if they wish to use it.

The FCL (Free Pascal Component Libraries) and the LCL (which will eventually become part of the FCL) are licensed under a modified LGPL. In a nut shell this means that you can write your own proprietary software that just links to these libraries. You can sell your application without the need to supply or make available your code. However, as with the compiler if you make modifications to the FCL or LCL you must make those changes available to the general public and the world.

Arlinearlington

Answer 4

IMO the Delphi 7 Personal Download is the only available legal "non-expensive" version of Delphi. But is is really limited in its features.

It's really a shame that Embarcadero forces one to invest some USD 900+ even if one wouldn't need all the bells and whistles of the Pro version. Especially if products from the "other company" (the Express versions) are given away for free.

I am talking about the need for the discontinued Turbo product line (based on a stable foundation, i.e. D2010 and not D2006) for the hobby software developer to get him started. Maybe his is even willing to upgrade to a full featured version some day.

Chris

Colombo

Do you know where I can download Delphi 7 Personal? – Angiosperm

The last legitimate looking download for Delphi 7 personal, that I know of, was from the Polish Borland site. It is no longer available. – Tompion

Answer 5

Just for completeness, you can get a 30 day trial: https://downloads.embarcadero.com/free/delphi

Also, I'd suggest going to a Delphi conference. You have about a 1 in 30 chance of winning a free copy or a significant discount.

Sikang

Answer 6

Embarcadero launched a starter edition of Delphi for $199. Latest version is Delphi 10 Seattle.

As Mohammed pointed out there is a upgrade price of $150, from any other IDE or developer tool product including earlier Delphi products.

Secretary

He/She can use the upgrade price which is $150 from any other IDEs, even the free one – Esme

Latest link is: store.embarcadero.com/542/catalog/product.s5220/language.en/… – Sortie

Answer 7

Important update:

Don't simply download any Delphi version from a mirror, even when they used to be free, when they are no longer available from Borland/CodeGear/Embarcadero.

According to Alexander's comment and contrary to the quote below, even though they were free, it may not be legal to newly install them now.

I wasn't aware of that when I quoted the answer from the question mentioned. Sorry.

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if you however decide to learn Delphi, you might want to look for Delphi 7 Personal which was removed from Borland / CodeGear / Embarcadero websites, but still is available on some mirror hosters. I believe it is legal to use this as it was once published as freeware. – migajek yesterday

Quoted from a comment on the question Do I need to free these objects?

The same may apply to Turbo Delphi 2006...

Disciple

Delphi 7 was never freeware. And using Turbo Delphi Explorer is illegal now as well. That's because in order to use it - you need a personal key/serial, which you could got from CodeGear's website. But they do not give keys anymore and all downloads are closed - so you're stuck here. Of course, if you've already installed Turbo - use it. If not - you can't do this legally now. – Crifasi

Answer 8

You might alternatively take a look at free CodeTyphon. It is a powerful one click installation package for cross platform native Delphi like RAD/IDE based on Lazarus/FreePascal. Your friend will start coding just few minutes after download. CodeTyphon already supports 4 CPU/OS hosts (Win32, Win64, Linux32, Linux64), and 16 CPU/OS targets (arm-Wince, arm-Linux, arm-Embedded, arm-gba, arm-nds, i386-Win32, i386-Linux, i386-FreeBSD, i386-Haiku, x86_64-Win64, x86_64-Linux, x86_64-FreeBSD, powerpc-Linux, powerpc64-Linux, sparc-Linux, sparc-Solaris). More are supported in Lazarus/FreePascal, but others are not yet integrated in CodeTyphon.

Imbed

This is just Lazarus with another name. – Sortie