4 ms·

> It is unrealistic to expect to be able to pay once and use an app "forever". No it's not. This is very realistic: pay once for a license to use the softwar

by nvr219 4y ago

> It is unrealistic to expect to be able to pay once and use an app "forever". No it's not. This is very realistic: pay once for a license to use the software, and then you pay a maintenance fee every year to get the updates and new versions. You stop paying, you stop getting the updates, but whatever you have already still works. There's no shortage of examples but I'll give a shout-out to one of my favorite software products, PRTG: https://shop.paessler.com/shop/prtg/new/?preselected_license=1038 https://shop.paessler.com/shop/prtg/new/?preselected_license...

OJFord 4y ago
That works for a stand-alone app, but not SaaS, a web-app, or an app that uses 'cloud features'.
- nvr219 4y ago
  Okay, but there are plenty of subscription apps that could just drop the cloud features and like 99% of the user base would be fine with that, Office and Adobe suites being obvious examples.
  - OJFord 4y ago
    Sure, I don't intend to dispute that at all. There are also cloud-based apps that absolutely could not be, and at least part of the reasoning is probably to make it easier to charge a subscription fee. I think the model's seen as being more lucrative, so even businesses that don't inherently need it so much try to find a way to adopt it.
    - nvr219 4y ago
      Agreed.
jwr 4y ago
You've pretty much described a subscription, with the difference that you expect that whatever you have already still works and that you completely ignore the problem of support. We can pretend it will work for a while, but I do not think this is realistic. Support is not something you can ignore: people will request support, post negative reviews and opinions, and you will need to deal with that. My point is that we should all stop pretending and just accept that apps cannot be used without regular maintenance anymore.

4 ms·

> It is unrealistic to expect to be able to pay once and use an app "forever". No it's not. This is very realistic: pay once for a license to use the softwar

by nvr219 4y ago

OJFord 4y ago
That works for a stand-alone app, but not SaaS, a web-app, or an app that uses 'cloud features'.
- nvr219 4y ago
  Okay, but there are plenty of subscription apps that could just drop the cloud features and like 99% of the user base would be fine with that, Office and Adobe suites being obvious examples.
  - OJFord 4y ago
    Sure, I don't intend to dispute that at all. There are also cloud-based apps that absolutely could not be, and at least part of the reasoning is probably to make it easier to charge a subscription fee. I think the model's seen as being more lucrative, so even businesses that don't inherently need it so much try to find a way to adopt it.
    - nvr219 4y ago
      Agreed.
jwr 4y ago
You've pretty much described a subscription, with the difference that you expect that whatever you have already still works and that you completely ignore the problem of support. We can pretend it will work for a while, but I do not think this is realistic. Support is not something you can ignore: people will request support, post negative reviews and opinions, and you will need to deal with that. My point is that we should all stop pretending and just accept that apps cannot be used without regular maintenance anymore.