What serves the client???
You got this $2,500 software license for free from vendor XYZ. Now you are going to recommend it to your contract.
Perhaps a more appropriate scenario is this:
You've been hired to develop an application for your client. The first question to be answered is what is the right development environment for this client, this product, and you, to be working with.
Pursuant to that question, it's necessary and appropriate for you, the consultant and prospective developer, to test and evaluate each of the development environments to determine the one most appropriate for the project.
I believe this is the scenario that the article envisions, and in this scenario it would be totally appropriate for you to approach the vendors of each of the potential development environments for an evaluation version of their development environment.
I do agree, though, that it would be totally inappropriate to choose to develop in any environment simply because:
(a) you already own the development environment;
(b) you're an expert in the environment and don't want to use/learn any other environment (unless, of course, you were hired specifically because of your expertise -- in which case, one presumes the aforementioned evaluations have already been properly conducted);
(c) you've been given a free (not trial, but FREE) copy of the development environment and are "paying homage" to the vendor for their generosity.
