As many of you already know, IDA6 copies ship separately for Windows/Linux/Mac. Before we were giving the Linux/Mac versions for free because there was no GUI for them. Now we have full fledged GUIs for all platforms (and our development/techsupport costs increased because of that), so we separated the licenses. We could simply have increased the price of the whole package but since the absolute majority of our users stick to one platform, it is fairer to separate licenses. This way only the customers who really use multiple platforms pay extra. We believe this is the fairest solution for everyone.
Some of your may ask, why, did your development and support costs really increase? You are using Qt and need only to recompile the same code for Linux and Mac, aren’t you?
While in theory this is how it works and Qt allows us to write code once and use it on multiple platforms, in practice it means lots of additional work.
First, Qt behaves differently on different platforms. We already have lots of #ifdef’ed code to address this or that platform specific issue. Mac OS X is notorious for having tons of special cases. To start with, it does not have the ‘insert’ key More seriously, there are more important issues with Mac and they will take time to fix.
Second, we have more platform specific support questions from users, not only Qt related, but general. We spend more time trying to reproduce bugs. For example: take dual monitor mac machine, open a ida listing window, move it to the second monitor; hover the mouse: the hint will be displayed on the wrong monitor. Another: on linux, bochs emulator works slower than expected. Yet another: trying to disassembly an avr input file on mac produces error messages in the config files. One more: on Linux, opening the breakpoint list with Ctrl-Alt-B causes a crash on some distros. I’m not even talking about debugging…
Third, we have lots of new code. Moving to Qt meant that we had to rewrite a substantial part of the user interface. Naturally, not everything works as before. Our users are very demanding and they want every minute detail to be addressed: http://www.hex-rays.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2680 (for the readers without access to the forum, this is a thread about using Alt-K to close dialog boxes; apparently some our users miss it despite of easier Cltr-Enter).
Fourth, we will have solve other inconveniences experienced by our Unix users. As it was justly mentioned, the auxiliary utilities will have to be rebuilt for every release not only for Windows, but also for Linux and Mac. Also, we will have to address the PDB/WinDbg unavailability under Unix. I’m not sure about WinDbg, but we will come up with a solution for PDB files (a windows based pdb server?)
Fifth, we will have to test IDA on all platforms. While testing the kernel is already done and it is a routine, testing GUI is difficult to automate. This means additional work for us in the future, unavoidably.
It is quite inconvenient, but currently every change we make into the user interface is done three times:
– in the new idaq interface
– in the old idag interface (we will release it at least one more time, so we have to keep it functional)
– in the old text interface (yes, we have some customers who still use it and it is a good idea to keep it around; we can not really kill it)
We invested lots of time and efforts into idaq: Daniel worked on it full time nine months. And he is a brilliant programmer who knows how to do things, yet there is a lot to do – just to achieve the same level of comfort as with idag.
All the above can not be done for free, sorry. While we could simply increase the package price, it wouldn’t be fair for the users who are happy with MS Windows. So we split the licenses. For most of our users the price stays the same. Only the ones who run IDA on multiple platforms pay extra.
We took this option because it keeps the price low for most our users. It looks as the fairest option to us.
So, we do not offer Linux/Mac versions for free anymore. Sorry.
One more interesting detail, so give you an idea of the situation. As it turned out, IDA Pro 5.7 for Mac was completely broken as shipped. In other words, nobody could run it because it immediately displayed a fatal error about a missing import. Guess how many complaints we received about this? I do not remember exactly, but it was a low number like 3 or 5. Naturally, we sent them the corrected version immediately. We did not fix the distributed version since it was easier for us to send a copy a few times rather than to change the build server. This is incomparable to what we have today, when we receive lots of bug reports is about Linux or Mac. Fortunately, most of them are about small details but they require us to find the correct version of the operating system, try to find out what went wrong, etc. At the same time the absolute majority of our users use MS Windows (around 5% of ida are from Linux copies and even less than that are from Mac copies).
As one of our customers correctly put it “you spoiled us”
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Its interactivity allows you to improve disassemblies in real time IDA Pro is a programmable, interactive, multi-processor disassembler combined with a local and remote debugger and augmented by a complete plugin programming environment.
IDA Pro is in many ways unique. Its interactivity allows you to improve disassemblies in real time. Its multi-processor support is unmatched. Yet, two of our technologies are truly unique, have never been implemented under any form in any real-life disassemblers and, more importantly, are incredible time savers.
IDA Pro is a disassembler.
As a disassembler, IDA Pro explores binary programs, for which source code isn't always available, to create maps of their execution. The real interest of a disassembler is that it shows the instructions that are actually executed by the processor in a symbolic representation called assembly language. If the friendly screen saver you have just installed is spying on your e-banking session or logging your e-mails, a disassembler can reveal it. However, assembly language is hard to make sense of. That's why advanced techniques have been implemented into IDA Pro to make that code more readable, in some cases, quite close to the original source code that produced the binary program. The map of the program's code then be postprocessed for further investigations. Some people have used it as the root of a genomic classification of viruses. (digital genome mapping � advanced malware analysis)
IDA Pro is a debugger.
But, in real life, things aren't always simple. Hostile code usually does not cooperate with the analyst. Viruses, worms and trojans are often armoured and obfuscated. More powerful tools are required. The debugger in IDA Pro complements the static analysis capabilities of the disassembler: by allowing to single step through the code being investigated, the debugger often bypasses the obfuscation and helps obtain data that the more powerful static disassembler will be able to process in depth. IDA Pro can be used as a local and as a remote debugger on the 80x86 (typically Windows/Linux) and the ARM plaform (typically Windows CE PDAs). Remote debuggers are very useful when one wants to safely dissect potentially harmful programs.
IDA Pro is interactive.
Because no computer can currently beat the human brain when it comes to exploring the unknown, IDA Pro is fully interactive. In sharp contrast with its predecessors, IDA always allows the human analyst to override its decisions or to provide hints. Interactivity culminates in a built-in programming language and an open plugin architecture.
IDA Pro is programmable
IDA Pro contains a complete development environment that consists of a very powerful macro-like language that can be used to automate simple to medium complexity tasks. For more advanced tasks, our open plugin architecture puts no limits on what external developers can do to enhance IDA Pro's functionality. One could, for example, extend IDA Pro with a MP3 player and make malware sing. However, we suspect our governmental customers are involved in more serious projects.
Limitations:
· It only supports the 80x86 family : IDA Pro support a large number of other processors. · It will only load Windows 32 PE files. The full version of IDA Pro will accept virtually any file, from Atmel ROMs to OS/2 LX executables. See our DISASSEMBLY GALLERY for information about the additional processors, operating systems and file formats we support. · Only the Windows GUI version is included in the archive. IDA Pro runs natively as a Windows GUI or console application, as an OS/2 console application and as an Extended DOS application. · The only compiler signatures included are the ones that can be used to produce Windows 32 PE files; the only type information included is for Visual C++ 6 and Borland C++ Builder you will not be able to save your work, it will time out after some use, it will not disassemble itself.
What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]
· Improved iPhone support · Much improved ARM and PowerPC support · Much improved PowerPC module · Easy debugger scripts in IDC · Improved type support
