I’m not sure how I feel about this yet, but Red Gate Software has acquired the awesome Reflector from Lutz Roeder. Reflector is one of those essential .NET development tools. I’d certainly be lost without it.

On one hand being acquired by a commercial software vendor is a real endorsement of a great product, and Red Gate have a good reputation too. But part of Reflector’s appeal is that you get all the great features for free and, despite not being open source, has good community contributions through the plug-in API. The fact that Red Gate will “maintain a free version for the benefit of the community” makes me wonder what won’t be in the free version.

I guess only time will tell.