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> In the "before times" limitations were either a fact of the hardware (i.e. you only have so much RAM, storage, CPU cycles, etc) or of your own ability (you do
by bigfatkitten 1y ago
> In the "before times" limitations were either a fact of the hardware (i.e. you only have so much RAM, storage, CPU cycles, etc) or of your own ability (you don't know how to crack the protection, defeat the anti-debug tricks, etc).
Not if you’re a mainframe customer. Capacity based licensing has been a standard practice in the mainframe world for around 50 years.
- EvanAnderson 1y agoPart of the magic of the personal computing revolution was breaking away from these shackles.
- bigfatkitten 1y agoAs a society, we’ve since decided that we actually prefer to rent everything and to have no agency.
- EvanAnderson 1y agoI don't think the marketplace does a good job of explaining the difference to people. That might change things. Maybe. Probably not. >sigh<
- fragmede 1y agoOn the other hand, the confusingly named DIVX (not the codec) expiring DVD-esque format (so you could play the DVD for 48 hours after purchase, and then after that you had to pay to watch it again. The format totally failed in the market and brought down Circuit City. So that suggests it's a user education issue.