Tell HN: Q/Kdb 32-bit no longer free for commercial use

Depressing surprise move for those of us that were interested in this quirky tiny platform.

To announce this in between versions (ie 3.3) without using official channels like Twitter, their news feed, or their KXCommunity blog, is quite baffling.

If you value the way of computing that K and Q enable, some truly free alternatives include:

Kona, a lively and fresh implementation of an earlier version of K (K3): https://github.com/kevinlawler/kona

Kuc, a language that reads much like K, but features some interesting new ideas, such as mmap as a verb, closures (and their direct descendant objects), and an inspectable machine code-like intermediate representation of code (but sadly not data): https://github.com/zholos/kuc

oK.js, the funky, bright JavaScript implementation that is quickly becoming a busy place on Github: https://github.com/JohnEarnest/ok

Sadly, the brilliant Kevin Lawler's Kerf begins to look less interesting once one considers the license. Still, its embrace of Json is something for other implementors note. https://github.com/kevinlawler/kerf

That brings us to http://kparc.com. In the gloomy distance, beyond the pillowy smoke of the fires on which we burnt our printed out Q tutorials for warmth, where we still fight over tattered copies of the crippled pre-crisis K4/32b interpreter, there is an ivory tower, the inhabitants of which, it is said, look down on us mortals with benign disdain.

Kparc promises us the interesting K5 and the life changing kOS. Their frustratingly secret work could be among the most important in the study of sustainable computing and different concepts of implementation.

Here, at long last, Arthur will bring his significant genius to the task of the user interface, still the torpid cesspool of the developers dreary life.

Tantalizing dreams of a free K seem dead now, but some remember those sultry rumors. Sadly, whether or not we'll ever get to actually use it remains an open question.