I didn't think this topic would go this far... but It's good to get feedback, both good and bad.
Let me break down my responses according to what I remember reading.
1) Bugs are always going to be around, and I'll try fix as much of it as I can.
2) I totally accept reverse engineering someone else's work for educational purpose and to prove to yourself that you can do it (what do you think we're doing here), but I just don't agree with reverse engineering in order to ruin someone's livelihood.
3) The issue with having a free and a fee version is because I know people already make use of Crome Free for profitable reasons. Releasing the dataloggin/tuning features for free would only mean more people making more money off of Crome, without a cent going back to me. This is also why the only difference between Pro and Free versions are the datalogging /tuning features.
I think there are many exceptional members in pgmfi that have contributed far more than I have in terms of getting this whole movement going, and I've personally learned alot from it, that I think it's just unfair to charge people money for information that I've gotten for free myself. Writing Crome was my way (initially) of giving back to the community. However, I do believe that the tuning part of Crome stems directly from my own passion and efforts to make tuning faster, easier, and more precise. And so I believe that I am entitled to something for my work in this area. (Real-time programming should actually be considered part of this, but it came out ealier as a testament to prove it can be done before the Pro/Dealer versions were ever conceived and so it will remain part of the free version

)
4) OK,
the real answers to what the different versions mean. Free means AS IS, educational, non-profit, non-commercial use. Pro license, simply entitles you to the datalogging/tuner features but your still limited to non-profit, non-commercial use. The Dealer version allows you to use Crome as a product that can be added on as an expense on top of your tuning services, and only that -- meaning, just as you would charge people extra for tuning with Hondata because you had to pay for the software, you can do the same with Crome.
There are some
loopholes (If would call it that) to the Pro license which benefits the user more than it does me. Technically the license is provided for the end user of the software and not the product of the software. Crome license is limitted to 1 (actually 2) PCs -- meaning with one license, you can only use it on one tuning computer. However, you can tune as many cars as you want as long as you are not profitting because of the use of the software. So If you buy one license, and you tuned 10 cars (all your friends') and you didn't profit from it, then you'll still be good. Also an exception is if you tune another person's car and charged that person soley based on skill and expertise as a tuner an not because of the software. This means that if you charge $100 per hour to tune someone's car with Hondata, you can't possibly ask for the same amount to tune using a Crome Pro license. Why? Because it would mean you are profitting from the use of the software just as you would be by using the Hondata software. Realistically, you should only be charing people for using your equipment, your time, and your skills. This is a very slim margin on what is considered profitting from use of the software, so if you really call youself an honest business, just consider and upgrade to a Dealer license.
I know that there isn't a lot of obvious reasons to why go with a Dealer instead of a Pro license, but this will become more evident in the upcoming release. This will be in terms of Dealer only plugins, and profit generating features that should only be available for those allowed to profit from the software. Now I am very confident that given any knowledgable person, it is faster to street tune with Crome than with Hondata (not sure about dyno tuning). So the time you and your customers save means time you could profit from.
While I'm at it, I might as well clear up another misunderstanding... Crome Pro/Dealer licenses only cover's the features available for that specific license -- meaning the datalogging/tuner features. Plug-ins are not considered part of Crome and must be used according to author's license agreement. It just so happens that most of the plugins are written by me, but they are technically not part of Crome. So a lot of ROM feature requests should really be forwarded towards the community instead of me only. Any requests regarding the software are given a higher priority (ie. datalog graphing). Hope that's clear... I'm not saying I won't create plug-ins for ROM features, but I can't guarantee that every request for ROM features will be taken into consideration.
[I said it was going to be long... read up]