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It can go both ways. Upgrades: Plus: Must be compelling so they must come up with new features Minus: Sometimes those new features are bad. Subscriptions:

by gernb 4y ago

It can go both ways. Upgrades: Plus: Must be compelling so they must come up with new features Minus: Sometimes those new features are bad. Subscriptions: Plus: Keep it working on new OS versions Minus: No compelling reason to add anything.

solardev 4y ago
I've never really seen a subscription program stagnate in practice. In fact I find that subscriptions allow companies to detach revenue from feature planning and deliver useful features rather than shiny new UIs.
- phrom 4y ago
  If revenue is not attached to feature planning, how are users going to influence what features get developed?
- chillfox 4y ago
  Evernote, all they did for several years was scrambling the UI.
- TeMPOraL 4y ago
  You and I must be using completely disjoint set of subscription software, because I can't think of any that ended up delivering useful features and improvements, instead of cutting out and dumbing down the functionality, while endlessly messing with the UI. That's a big reason people want sta ility of "buy once": to protect the tool they use now from becoming worse over time.
- gernb 4y ago
  Of course it's subjective but my feeling is Photoshop hasn't added anything of significance since they went subscription. The majority of new features have been cloud intergration (something not even many of Adobe's employees want) and UI tweaks They're even removing features https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/3d-faq.html#discontinued-photoshop-3d-features https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/3d-faq.html#discontinue...
pbhjpbhj 4y ago
>Plus: Keep it working on new OS versions // People are running pre-subscription Adobe products, for example, ... what specific software is suddenly breaking with OS changes?
- gernb 4y ago
  IIRC CS6 was the last non-subscription version. It's installer is 32bit but MacOS no longer runs 32bit executables. Maybe people find workarounds. This kind of thing is especially true in iOS where every OS release kills off a bunch of software using deprecated and then deleted APIs. It's likely in 2-3 years MacOS will pull out Intel support (like they pulled out PowerPC support after so many years when they switched to Intel)

by gernb 4y ago

solardev 4y ago

I've never really seen a subscription program stagnate in practice. In fact I find that subscriptions allow companies to detach revenue from feature planning and deliver useful features rather than shiny new UIs.

phrom 4y ago
If revenue is not attached to feature planning, how are users going to influence what features get developed?
chillfox 4y ago
Evernote, all they did for several years was scrambling the UI.
TeMPOraL 4y ago
You and I must be using completely disjoint set of subscription software, because I can't think of any that ended up delivering useful features and improvements, instead of cutting out and dumbing down the functionality, while endlessly messing with the UI. That's a big reason people want sta ility of "buy once": to protect the tool they use now from becoming worse over time.
gernb 4y ago
Of course it's subjective but my feeling is Photoshop hasn't added anything of significance since they went subscription. The majority of new features have been cloud intergration (something not even many of Adobe's employees want) and UI tweaks They're even removing features https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/3d-faq.html#discontinued-photoshop-3d-features https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/3d-faq.html#discontinue...

pbhjpbhj 4y ago

>Plus: Keep it working on new OS versions // People are running pre-subscription Adobe products, for example, ... what specific software is suddenly breaking with OS changes?

gernb 4y ago
IIRC CS6 was the last non-subscription version. It's installer is 32bit but MacOS no longer runs 32bit executables. Maybe people find workarounds. This kind of thing is especially true in iOS where every OS release kills off a bunch of software using deprecated and then deleted APIs. It's likely in 2-3 years MacOS will pull out Intel support (like they pulled out PowerPC support after so many years when they switched to Intel)