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Subscriptions mean I purchase far less software. This is an empirical observation - my personal software spending is down something like 80% over the last coupl
by _jal 6y ago
Subscriptions mean I purchase far less software. This is an empirical observation - my personal software spending is down something like 80% over the last couple years, and it is due to the friction of subscriptions.
The main thing is I do not like assigning myself future decisions, especially about money, and I don't like ongoing financial obligations.
I'm not saying this is strictly rational; I'm sure there are times I've paid way more for software than a sub for the duration of my use would have been.
But it is true - the friction of the ongoing obligation means software has to cross a much higher bar before I don't go find a different way to solve my problem.
I realize the switch makes software companies more stable, etc. All true, and it has zero to do to my decision making.
- burlesona 6y agoI think the tricky part is how many applications these days are relatively “dumb” clients that rely on a back-end server at least for data storage and potentially even for compute. You can’t really offer something like that as a one-time purchase because the backend requires continuous operation and maintenance for the software to work. These days a lot of consumers don’t want to deal with file management or having to think about their data, so it’s increasingly the case that “the app magically works via the cloud” is table stakes. I agree, though, I don’t like it and I buy less software as a result. This especially frustrates me with things like the Adobe creative suite and Creative tools in that category. I used to keep a fairly robust collection of image editors, sound editors, etc. but so many of those things have gone subscription that I just don’t bother anymore.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]