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On the other side of that equation, what you would hope is that your $50/month is buying you a subscription to steadily increased functionality over time. That

On the other side of that equation, what you would hope is that your $50/month is buying you a subscription to steadily increased functionality over time. That's something your $1000 up-front payment wouldn't get you, and it helps offset the initial on-boarding costs. It's also probably true that once your one employee has gone through the selection, learning, and purchasing process, getting subsequent users on-boarded is much quicker, because there's someone sat next to them to say "just do it this way".

Silhouette 7y ago
On the other side of that equation, what you would hope is that your $50/month is buying you a subscription to steadily increased functionality over time. Some people might hope for that. Personally, if I'm buying a tool for professional use, I want to choose my preferred one and then have it be reliable and future-proof. Things like security updates are one thing, but the last thing I want is random changes in functionality or UI being forced on me. This worked just fine in the traditional model where you bought a version of some software, and then if there was another version released later with something more that you wanted and adequate compatibility, you bought the upgrade too. The user gets stability and new developments if they want them. The developer gets paid for new developments, though only if they are actually valuable to users. No-one gets forced into anything unexpected changing, or going missing, or breaking compatibility. Tragically, the whole SaaS, insta-deploy anything we feel like culture that has evolved in recent years has utterly destroyed that stability and reliability. I regard this as possibly the biggest retrograde step in the history of personal computing (and that "possibly" is mostly because the walled garden culture that has also become so powerful in recent years might be a larger backward step).
- regularfry 7y ago
  I don't disagree: there's a reason I prefer Debian Stable on my servers. But when done well, and in the right place, it can be a worthwhile avenue. Github is a pretty good example: they've not stood still (ok, they also haven't moved that fast either), but the core of what worked 10 years ago still works today.

Silhouette 7y ago

On the other side of that equation, what you would hope is that your $50/month is buying you a subscription to steadily increased functionality over time. Some people might hope for that. Personally, if I'm buying a tool for professional use, I want to choose my preferred one and then have it be reliable and future-proof. Things like security updates are one thing, but the last thing I want is random changes in functionality or UI being forced on me. This worked just fine in the traditional model where you bought a version of some software, and then if there was another version released later with something more that you wanted and adequate compatibility, you bought the upgrade too. The user gets stability and new developments if they want them. The developer gets paid for new developments, though only if they are actually valuable to users. No-one gets forced into anything unexpected changing, or going missing, or breaking compatibility. Tragically, the whole SaaS, insta-deploy anything we feel like culture that has evolved in recent years has utterly destroyed that stability and reliability. I regard this as possibly the biggest retrograde step in the history of personal computing (and that "possibly" is mostly because the walled garden culture that has also become so powerful in recent years might be a larger backward step).

regularfry 7y ago
I don't disagree: there's a reason I prefer Debian Stable on my servers. But when done well, and in the right place, it can be a worthwhile avenue. Github is a pretty good example: they've not stood still (ok, they also haven't moved that fast either), but the core of what worked 10 years ago still works today.