August 12, 2026
Pascal Panic Meets Comeback Energy
Delphi 13 Community Edition Is Now Available
Delphi’s free comeback has fans nostalgic, outsiders curious, and rivals already side-eyeing
TLDR: Delphi 13 Community Edition is now free again for qualifying small users, with newer tools and broader device support. The comments instantly split between nostalgia, surprise that Delphi still powers real apps, and a blunt rivalry question: why pick this over Lazarus?
Delphi 13 Community Edition just dropped as a free version of Embarcadero’s long-running app-building tool, opening the door for students, hobbyists, freelancers, and small startups. On paper, the update is pretty packed: newer mobile support, a bigger 64-bit workspace for large projects, smoother app design tools, and lots of polish for building Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android apps. But let’s be honest: the real fireworks were in the comments, where this announcement turned into a mini reunion, a reality check, and a turf war all at once.
The strongest vibe? Nostalgia with a side of skepticism. One commenter got misty-eyed remembering Borland’s glory days and driving past its old headquarters, basically treating Delphi like a beloved rock band making a comeback tour. Another remembered Pascal—the language Delphi grew from—as “tidy and clean” but also painfully verbose, with grim flashbacks to the nightmare of talking to Windows directly. Meanwhile, an outsider wandered into Delphi’s “cool apps” showcase and was genuinely shocked that Beyond Compare was built with it, which sparked that classic internet reaction: wait, this old thing is still secretly everywhere?
And then came the inevitable drama bomb: “Why would anyone use that over Lazarus?” With one sentence, the comments had their rivalry. So while Embarcadero was listing features, the crowd was debating identity: is Delphi a revived classic, an underrated workhorse, or just a nostalgia trip with competitors waiting in the wings?
Key Points
- •Embarcadero released Delphi 13 Community Edition as a free edition of its professional Delphi development environment.
- •The release is based on Delphi 13 Florence and updates the Community Edition from version 12.1 with features from versions 12.2, 12.3, and 13.0.
- •Delphi 13 Community Edition includes new Delphi language features such as a conditional expression, NameOf, is not and not in operators, new compiler directives, and other language enhancements.
- •The product adds an updated 32-bit IDE and a new 64-bit IDE, plus IDE improvements including a 64-bit language server, search and filtering tools, Focus Mode, split views, and GetIt package versioning.
- •Framework updates include FireMonkey improvements for animation, GPU bitmap copying, components, and platform integration, as well as VCL updates such as styled custom title bars, improved controls, updated WebView2 integration, and expanded Windows and WinRT API support.