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Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

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241–250 of 710 posts

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#241
SaaS is a menace. There are lots of valid use cases - streaming service, cloud storage, online games come to mind - but otherwise it means users basically lose yet another part of their ownership. I view software as a tool, like a hammer. You don't want your tools to break unexpectedly, phone home, or change their functionality without your explicit approval.

For a price I expect the developer to release bugfixes and security patches, nothing more. Feature updates and compatibility fixes can be billed. They should be worth the update price. Honestly, most software can be "finished": when it does its main function well, and has compatibility, why bother? Who even looks at changelogs of Jira, Photoshop or Office nowadays? Users are more afraid of what will be removed rather than what they gain.

It's each maker's choice to set up a scheme, but I see the industry sliding to exploitation by default.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#243

Ignoring all the issues around ownership, corporations being untrustworthy, etc., I think one of the biggest problems is that subscription costs aren't flexible enough and require too much micromanagement. You use a program 24/7 for a month straight? That'll be $10. You need to use a program just for a single 5-minute task in a whole month? That'll be $10. You literally don't touch a program for a month? That'll be $…

I've been exploring a pay what you want model for a subscription. Would you prefer something like this? Or more about just putting in more options for selecting based on one's usage? something else?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#244
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how do you sync passwords across my 3 laptops and 3 phones without a SaaS offering? Syncthing. Set up once, runs reliably forever. > How can I securely share credentials with family members? I don't do this either (and don't know anyone who does) but I imagine it'd be easy to just create a different shared database for the family for that? With password store, it's also possible to set multiple different gpg keys f…

Syncthing doesn't work for iOS https://forum.syncthing.net/t/syncthing-for-ios/16045 > it's also possible to set multiple different gpg keys for a specific directory. I don't think the last option is doable for most people though. this seems really complex...

I used syncthing for years and never heard of those features

keepassxc + syncthing this is the way

android: keepassdx off f-droid + syncthing

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have a choice not to upgrade Windows, not practically, it will go out of support and you can't do anything about it other than hope Windows Next will be more to your liking.

Hello from the past. I'm typing this on a Windows 7, without the most of the updates. Most works fine, just can't install the newest Office or Games. But who wants that? p.s.: Nope, no viruses or things like that. Windows 7 is so old that it's not supported by botnets anymore.

This is like bragging about not wearing a seatbelt because "I haven't flown through the windshield yet"

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the heck subscription models are you using? In my experience the software gets broken over time and you can't do anything about it, including RUN THE OLD VERSION WHICH WORKED. There's no longer as much incentive for companies to improve because they'll get paid anyway instead of payment being contingent on actually delivering something useful. Yes subscription models are good for developers, no this doesn't make…

Not the OP, but I have to disagree too. Creative Cloud, IntelliJ, Figma, Google Workspace, Postman, Spotify, Vercel, Adguard, Google storage space, Alltrails, 1password.. They're all subscriptions and getting better all the time. Meanwhile it's the old purchased software like Windows and Office that get worse with every version.

Spotify? What the heck is it doing in this list. When you pay Spotify - you are paying - supposedly for a large part - for Artists's right, not for a Software service.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the heck subscription models are you using? In my experience the software gets broken over time and you can't do anything about it, including RUN THE OLD VERSION WHICH WORKED. There's no longer as much incentive for companies to improve because they'll get paid anyway instead of payment being contingent on actually delivering something useful. Yes subscription models are good for developers, no this doesn't make…

Not the OP, but I have to disagree too. Creative Cloud, IntelliJ, Figma, Google Workspace, Postman, Spotify, Vercel, Adguard, Google storage space, Alltrails, 1password.. They're all subscriptions and getting better all the time. Meanwhile it's the old purchased software like Windows and Office that get worse with every version.

I haven't seen any improvement in Spotify in years.

Still can't organise songs in any meaningful way, can't rate songs, playlists suck, shuffle is broken, and they keep pushing podcast content when I never listen to podcasts.

1Password also used to sync to Dropbox for free and even had an HTML version that could serve from Dropbox.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you feel as though Windows as a SaaS would be better? At least as a consumer I have a choice to say “I’d rather not upgrade to Windows 11 and get the worse experience” and not just login and see that those changes that I wouldn’t have upgraded for have just been pushed down as it happens with a SaaS. Windows, as an example, is an interesting one in that you’re paying once for a license and it’s good more or less i…

You don't have a choice not to upgrade Windows, not practically, it will go out of support and you can't do anything about it other than hope Windows Next will be more to your liking.

Windows 10 LTSB will be supported for about 10 years from now. (with 0 feature changes)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?

#250
The garage door opener feature is behind a subscription for Chamberlain on Tesla. Lol. A monthly fee to be able to open a garage door. Nah thanks I'll clip the opener to the sun visor. I hope they throw enough money away on this to learn a lesson and give up forever.

https://support.chamberlaingroup.com/s/article/myQ-Tesla-Fre...

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