RTC went out of business

A vendor attempts to implement an endless subscription. A thin veneer over WinINET, no server-side SSL support.

Brief introduction to RTC Client

RTC means “Really Thin Client.”

In its heyday, Real Thin Client was doing well. Due to massive software piracy problem, paying customers were subsidizing software pirates. In the end, the RTC collapsed.

RTC's json parsing was unique. RTC's older port of the SMF forums to Delphi was interesting.

RTC had a good run. The vendor sent their customers Christmas cards to their customers.

/N Software, Chilkat, ICS, Indy

/N software puts all their source-code into black-box RES files. They implement features that cannot be stolen - i.e., unless you are an expert in recompiling Visual Studio C++ EXEs, good luck.

Chilkat moved their source-code into DLLs. You then interface DLLs but not obtain the source-code.

What went wrong?

RTC’s HTTP server had no TLS/SSL feature. Adding SSL required a Euros 599 payment.


RTC couldn't not compete with free ICS or free Indy and fell wayside. Get it on Github.