Hi all,
I’m a high student and hardcore knowledge nerd interested in using Tinderbox but I can’t afford it. I’m saving up for Version 10 and I was wondering about the expected release date and if the price would be the same.
(Apologies if this is not the right place in the forum)
IMO the version number is not a milestone. Tbx is being constantly updated and improved, and even minor number revisions (say 9.5.0 to 9.5.1 to 9.5.2) can yield major functionality upgrades. A lot depends on what you need, and if the app is able to provide it.
You can play with the free download which only has a note count limitation, from what I recall. This should give you an idea if the app is right for you - if it is, the counsel is to waste no time, simply commit and buy it. As time passes and your skillset broadens, Tbx will only prove more valuable, never less!
Other thing to bear in mind is that what you’re getting with Tinderbox is joining an active and seasoned user community that holds regular meetups, and (sometimes) offers more solutions than you have problems 
Welcome to the Tinderbox community. I can’t answer your question directly, but only as Tinderbox has no formal roadmap or published release schedule. The real picture of releases is here: Previous Versions. There is generally a new vN.0 circa once a year and a vN.5 six months in but The long gap v5 → v6 is because the app was completely recoded using Xcode and current Apple frameworks for v6. Such things occur for long lived apps (Tinderbox is 21 this year).
Regardless, as @archurhh notes, waiting for a big release isn’t the big deal it is elsewhere. The licence conditions—albeit once you have a licence—are pretty flexible:
- any releases within a year of purchase are free
- app continues to work fully after that period
- those working on old OS might get caught out if a new app version moves to a new OS baseline but those tech requirements aren’t onerous. A few current features may—due to the OS features they use—require a new(-ish) OS version.
- an ‘upgrade’ can be applied at any time, starting a fresh 12 months of free access to updates.
The vendor is aware not everyone has the need/resources to keep up to date all the time. This flexible upgrade-any-time approach seems a practical compromise.
Eastgate doesn’t have any special discount categories (e.g. Edu —which likely would be a lot of its users 
). But a number of small artisanal Mac software houses, like Eastgate, have a WinterFest/SummerFest which offer steep discounts. I know SummerFest is some months off but if looking for savings, that might be a good bet. Here the last Winterfest page (offers there are now closed).
Demo mode offers quite a lot, the main limit being you are limited to making 24 new notes—last time I checked (not sure if agent aliases count as ‘new notes’). But, in truth most of the recent files/demos posted here could be tried in an app in demo mode. So you can start learning the app even if you can’t generate lots of content before having a licence.
Don’t forget my aTbRef has loads about the app and you can download the TBX document used to make that website. Writing the latter was how I learned about Tinderbox: few (non?) of us needs every toll in the Tinderbox toolbox but reading about and experimenting with them certainly teaches you about the app.
Lastly, I’d reinforce @archurhh’s point about this forum. Questions here tap into a lot of both Tinderbox expertise and expertise of using Tinderbox in concert with other apps (reference managers, other PKM tools, etc.) and I hope you’ll find it a responsive and helpful community. Also see @satikusala’s selection of videos about how to approach various tasks/techniques in Tinderbox.
HTH
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Hi Craig,
I had similar concerns. I haven’t bought Tinderbox yet but I have a lot of fun playing with the demo (no time constrains which is great!) and I need to convince myself the software is not another one just to scratch my nerd itch, haha.
The “fear of missing out” is scary but check what do the x.1, x.2, etc. updates add - a lot. They are large updates with new features with some of them could justify a new big release in my opinion (especially, if the added feature is useful for my specific case).
Finally, since you buy a year of free updates, you have a good chance the 10.0 will be included since we seem to be in the middle of the cycle. I have a feeling that if you (and I) buy it, we will be both extending the update cycle. If not, we have a fully working powerhouse-of-a-software already without spending more!