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Major Sandboxie News: Sandboxie is now a free tool with plans to transition it to an open source tool

Sophos is excited to announce that we are making Sandboxie a free tool, with plans to transition it to an open source tool.

This new evolution of Sandboxie is one we are enthusiastic about, but that does not mean this was an easy decision to make.  Sandboxie has never been a significant component of Sophos’ business, and we have been exploring options for its future for a while. 

Frankly, the easiest and least costly decision for Sophos would have been to simply end of life Sandboxie. However, we love the technology too much to see it fade away.  More importantly, we love the Sandboxie community too much to do that. The Sandboxie user base represents some of the most passionate, forward thinking, and knowledgeable members of the security community and we didn’t want to let you down.

After thoughtful consideration we decided that the best way to keep Sandboxie going was to give it back to its users – transitioning it to an open source tool.  We will release more information about the open source project as we continue to work on the details.

Until the open source transition is completed we have decided to make Sandboxie completely free.  We have included a FAQ below with more information. We will continue to update this post as additional details become available. 

 

Sandboxie FAQ

 

How do I get a free license?  What features are included?

Sandboxie currently uses a license key to activate and grant access to premium features only available to paid customers (as opposed to those using a free version).  We have modified the code and have released an updated free version that does not restrict any features.  In other words, the new free license will have access to all the features previously only available to paid customers.

 

What if I have time left on my current Sandboxie license?

Regardless of how much time might be left on your existing Sandboxie license, in order to receive the latest updates customers with currently valid license keys will also need to install the latest unrestricted free version .  This will ensure you have access to all Sandboxie features and are using the most up-to-date version of the product.

 

What if I currently do not have a Sandboxie license?

Simply download the unrestricted, free version. No current or previous license is required.

 

When will Sandboxie be released as open source?

We are investigating making Sandboxie open source, however we are still working through the details and timeline. We will update this FAQ when we know more.

 

What license agreement will apply to my existing, paid licenses?  Will the same agreement apply to the unrestricted, free version that will be made available?

The license agreement under which you originally obtained the paid licenses to Sandboxie will continue to apply to those paid licenses until the expiration of the applicable license term.   A new license agreement will apply to licenses of the new unrestricted, free version of Sandboxie made available for download. 

An update EULA can be found here: https://www.sandboxie.com/EndUserLicenseAgreement

 

Will customer support still be available?

As part of our transition to a free and potentially open source product, Sandboxie support will become community based.  The community will include developers directly involved with Sandboxie.




[locked by: Akhilesh@Sophos at 9:23 PM (GMT -7) on 24 Mar 2020]
  • We all love Sandboxie, that's why we use it. The main problems with this process have arisen from the lies, disinformation, and a lack of transparency from Sophos (corporately) over an extended period. Is the server still broken, and why aren't the old forums available still?

    It is good to read that you also want it to continue, but is it correct to assume that your enthusiasm is as an individual rather than as a Sophos employee/spokesperson?

    As far as I can tell, Sandboxie is a unique programme; certainly I have never found a way to replace it successfully, and I have tried. So lets hope this open-sourcing is not all "hot air" by Sophos, and we can look forward to ongoing development. Sadly I won't be holding my breath.

    Does anyone know what happened to Tzuk once he sold Sandboxie?

  • These are the posts I like to see. Long live Sandboxie!

    SecBug said:
    Perhaps Sandboxie will finally see the pervasive use it deserves but, for whatever reason, was never able to find.

    I blame the GUI that has never changed since the beginning, I'm fine with it, but it could use a lot of QoL improvements like drag&drop support, I could probably list over 20 little things to improve the using of it while keeping everything else the same.

  • Andreas Fischer1 said:

    Actually I am professional C++ developer and I am looking forward to it being open source. Will for sure take a look at it and I think many others will take too. I think you underestimate the skills available in the OpenSource community. Of cause it can go both ways but who knows maybe somebody drives a nice open source team and you will see interesting new sandboxie versions and also sepecialized sandboxie forks. 

    <3 It's people like you we're working on open sourcing Sandboxie for, Andreas! We have high hopes that the open source community will relish the opportunity to dive into a codebase for such powerful technology and to be able to guide it forward in the right direction.

    Open sourcing Sandboxie is a lot of work for us and will cost us a lot of time and money. But we feel it's the right thing to do. I've personally been using Sandboxie since 2004 and there is a lot of love for it internally, throughout Sophos.

    Personally, sandboxing feels like a technology that should be open source for Windows just as it is on Linux and Unix - it's a technology that has a lot of uses in a variety of applications. I dream of Sandboxie's technology being forked and incorporated into other software so that more people can benefit from isolation. Perhaps Sandboxie will finally see the pervasive use it deserves but, for whatever reason, was never able to find.

  • Trolls feed is the attention they get (just see after some responded reasonably to his post how much more and more he wrote). But I have to admit you even make it difficult for me not to respond. Although there is seriously not even one line of your post that is not nonsense (indeed difficult to achieve in such a long post) that is not screaming for a respond I will keep this as short as it can get

    Lifetime license my sweet law angel is about the lifetime of the product not yours...
    And from the terms of the lifetime license you describe (and may also, not so legally, financially exploit with your 'group') it seems you had paid for it before changing the lifetime license terms so from the very early beginning. Your 1st line on your 1st post: "What about the fortune i paid for a lifetime license"
    For the 'kids' here the license back then was in the range of $10........
    (perhaps what you wanted to say was What about the fortune I illegally earned by exploiting the $10 lifetime license I bought more than a decade ago??)

    You are good but you will not succeed make me respond back to you again
    Long live the trolls!

  • Bite Me1 said:

    Barb has already disappeared. No posts since the big announcement. We're on our own now.

    When they said they won't provide support anymore, I didn't think it would have been so drastic. Let just hope they keep their word and make Sandboxie open source.

  • Barb has already disappeared. No posts since the big announcement. We're on our own now.

  • What i ask myself: Will there be some support from Sophos here in the forum, as long as the source code of Sandboxie is not made public? If Sophos needs for example 3 months to release the source code, then are there 3 months without any help, when users have problems with Sandboxie? And after releasing the source code, it needs some time for community people to understand the code - who is giving support in this time (like Barb@sophos did it in the past)? Or is the support stopped since releasing the free version 5.31.4, regardless whether the source is available or not?

  • Dont worry, it doesnt bug anything.

    It does nothing different from any previous upgrade besides the activation process.

    And without new improvements or bug corrections.

    You can do as they say, "downgrade your windows patches to have security".

    This should be your only concern. I am going to emphasize that on my video.

    They will probably delete my posts, but they are already printed and my youtube channel have thousand times more views.

    And my video talking the real thing about sophos will be there, like my license, for LIFETIME.

  • David Xanatos said:

    > 2004. ... from the age of telephone internet dial up

    I don't know under what rock you lived back then....

    already in 2001 I had cable internet with 300k and i had in 2002 DSL with 512k, dial up internet is soooo 1998...

     

    Like i said, no point talking to leftists.

    https://www.pewinternet.org/chart/broadband-vs-dial-up-adoption-over-time/

    As you can see... IN USA, broadband only passed dial up in numbers after 2005.

    And even if you WERE RIGHT, that does not change my point kid.

    When someone thinks that correcting a data error makes them take down the main argument...

    It is someone that knows nothing about syllogism. Well, you corrected wrongly anyway. Time to go back to Bobby's World...

    So, 2004 WAS dial up age. Understood? Period.

    What you said? Is just an argumentation error of low iq people.

    Dicto Simpliciter - Secundum Quid. It is to destroy the general rule using an isolated example.

    https://www2.palomar.edu/users/bthompson/Secundum%20Quid.html

    You just confirmed what i said, it is EASY to change interface. And THAT is the first thing they should do and didnt do with the project they bought.

    Bad management. Mr Peter LAMMER bought too many companies and did not allocate people correctly to the projects.

    The homepage presents NOTHING about the product. They did not even chang the 2004 drawings about how it works. Worst, they removed.

    https://www.sandboxie.com/HowItWorks

    Show me ONE, JUST ONE 2019 product that has the same presentation as 2004 in the marketing giving profit.

    That is a 2004 solo programmer presentation made in PAINT.EXE about his great work. Not some product presentation and interface to be in market by a huge company 15 years later.

    If i offer 50 bucks for a kid in discord to make a page in wix.com for sandboxie, in a few hours i would have something 10 times better than that.

    PERIOD. If you say they didnt kill the product with bad management you have a 2 digits IQ.