4 ms·

Probably the quality of their product will increase because they will not have the pressure to engage the yearly upgrade circus, adding dubious features just to

Probably the quality of their product will increase because they will not have the pressure to engage the yearly upgrade circus, adding dubious features just to justify upgrading and competing with themselves. Also they will be more likely to stay in business due to the recurring business so you will not have to fear a mature yet useful product going away because their demand dries up. Subscription aligns objectives. They want your continued business and you want that a product that does something you need is not abandoned when you reach a point where upgrades do more harm than good.

smnrchrds 6y ago
> you will not have to fear a mature yet useful product going away because their demand dries up. Now you have to fear it much more. With perpetual licenses, you never lose access to your work and your files. Maybe you have to keep a computer working with current version of Windows, because the software does not work with the next one. But you can continue using the software, well, in perpetuity. Many people are still using the last non-subscription version of Lightroom, Photoshop, etc. Some people are still using Lotus Agenda and WordPerfect. In contrast, with subscription software, if the company does not do well and goes out of business, or does moderately well and gets acquhired, or if for any reason loses interest in continuing providing the software, you get an email about their incredible journey and how proud they are and oh yeah, the service will stop working in 20 days and your files and years of work locked in a proprietary format will become inaccessible.
- antaviana 6y ago
  Hopefully you will not have to reinstall your perpetual license application when the vendor activation server is long gone. Since the long term survival chances of businesses based on permanent licenses are a lot lower, then your odds will be better with freeware, open source or pirated software.
  - smnrchrds 6y ago
    Wouldn't virtual machines solve that issue?

smnrchrds 6y ago

> you will not have to fear a mature yet useful product going away because their demand dries up. Now you have to fear it much more. With perpetual licenses, you never lose access to your work and your files. Maybe you have to keep a computer working with current version of Windows, because the software does not work with the next one. But you can continue using the software, well, in perpetuity. Many people are still using the last non-subscription version of Lightroom, Photoshop, etc. Some people are still using Lotus Agenda and WordPerfect. In contrast, with subscription software, if the company does not do well and goes out of business, or does moderately well and gets acquhired, or if for any reason loses interest in continuing providing the software, you get an email about their incredible journey and how proud they are and oh yeah, the service will stop working in 20 days and your files and years of work locked in a proprietary format will become inaccessible.

antaviana 6y ago
Hopefully you will not have to reinstall your perpetual license application when the vendor activation server is long gone. Since the long term survival chances of businesses based on permanent licenses are a lot lower, then your odds will be better with freeware, open source or pirated software.
- smnrchrds 6y ago
  Wouldn't virtual machines solve that issue?