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

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

#291

Post by eternityforest »

I wasn't buying paid software before, and I'm not buying the SaaS version either.

There's enough perfectly good open source and freeware(Although you might be the product with some of it), that I don't currently pay for any software at all at home, aside from maybe $15 a year in DLC for games, and services that aren't just SaaS. Although Tile Premium doesn't do much that couldn't be done locally as far as I know.

A bigger problem is media streaming, which was great back when everything was on 2 or 3, but it's getting insane now.

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

#292

Post by Silhouette »

themacguffinman wrote: post #233
TingPing wrote: post #194

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.

It may not be advisable, but tell that to the XP-for-life or 7-for-life people. It won't actually stop working, it just means you're much more vulnerable to malware.

It won't actually stop working, it just means you're much more vulnerable to malware.

The biggest threats haven't come from direct external assaults on the OS for years. I expect a typical consumer device is more at risk from an out of date browser than any other type of vulnerability now. The biggest risk for most of us as personal users is someone stealing our data via a hack, which often doesn't require root/administrator access to the host system anyway if you can compromise something already Internet-connected like a browser or messaging app.

Of course old versions of Windows not getting updates from Microsoft any more is a concern on some level but it's probably a long way down the list for anyone who actually has a good reason to still be using the old versions. I know quite a few people with quite a few different and entirely rational reasons for doing so, though many of those reasons involve some other form of predatory business model by some other big company that makes hardware and/or software. (Hardware that was declared EOL and doesn't have drivers for newer Windows versions, software with some sort of DRM that ties it to running on a specific system, that kind of thing.)

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

#293

Post by phrom »

I love seeing how many people mention Jetbrains as a good example of a subscription model when this topic comes up. I agree. But I think the reason it is good is that a yearly subscription to one of their products can also be seen as a one off purchase of a 1 year older version of that product, with an accompanying free trial of their latest version. Then if you liked that trial, you get a chance to purchase it after 1 year, at a discount. And then another deeper discount after 2 years.

That's really hard to find a problem with, whether you prefer subscriptions or one off purchases. It's really a mix of the two.

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

#294

Post by Oxidation »

falcolas wrote: post #276
cweill wrote: post #271

Having been on both sides as a customer and foundee, I love subscriptions. Every business needs a business model. Subscribers is a very clear one. I'm untrusting of any service that's free and doesn't rely on ad-revenue, because they have incentive to make money in other shady ways like selling your data to third-parties who will use it against your best interests. Subscriptions are a nice business model because they…

Here's the problem with that - there's not enough room for every company and their subscription model. So where you have a chance to get money from someone with a one time purchase, you're going to have to fight to get another piece of their subscription budget. And more and more - you're not going get that piece. Customers only have so much money and so much time. Expecting them to make a long term commitment is goi…

And it's the time almost more than anything else. A subscription means I need a login to some subscription portal. I need to monitor the subscription and the payments. When I want to cancel it, quite possibly that will take some time and need me to call. There's a non zero chance it'll slip though the cracks and end up costing me four figures.

You know what? I didn't really want your software enough to get into any kind of ongoing relationship here, I'll make do without it. I don't have the energy for dozens of services.

It does work a little better for business as I don't need to personally deal with the admin, but even then on a financial basis, per-user-per-month costs still add up very fast.

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

#295

Post by b1ue64 »

crazygringo wrote: post #40

Not really, because I saw too many software companies go out of business because not enough people wound up upgrading to the next major version -- the ownership model of software can be awfully feast-or-famine for developers' income, it's a very tough/risky business model. Generally speaking, I'm happy to pay a subscription because this way I get a steady stream of all the updates, and it's much more likely the compa…

> as strange as "owning" a music album.

praying that this is a joke rn

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

#297

Post by TrackerFF »

Subscription services are a bit like gym memberships. GREAT for those that workout minimum 3 days a week, a waste of money if you go to the gym once a month. Absolute bargain if you go to the gym once or twice a day.

Now, if I could pay $1/day for some service, instead of $30 / month - I'd probably only use subscription services. But that's not how they make their money.

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

#298

Post by jaimex2 »

Yeah, I actively resist it.

Running old versions of products that I own. I'm 100% on Linux now running pretty much everything on Wine which seems to be more compatible than Windows if you're going down this path.

Nothing good has come from subscription models and there's some fantastic FOSS options taking over where purchasable software once existed. I'd rather fund those.

As a developer I do like that there are people out there happy to have me attach a leech to their wallets.

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

#299

Post by lunarplague »

lozenge wrote: post #247
solardev wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't understand how come you get podcast content pushed to you, and I have to actively search for podcast content and can't find anything outside of the bubbles I listen to without going to external sources.

Also, arguably, shuffle is not broken, it is working as intended, as there is an intended method to shuffle the songs according to popularity, right? Unless they changed that.

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

#300

Post by zamadatix »

NoPicklez wrote: post #261
ravenstine wrote: post #96

Yes, and the only practical answer is to consider how many of these subscriptions you actually need. For instance, I see no reason why a password manager should be a SaaS. I don't care how long these companies have been around thusfar; in my opinion, using a password manager as-a-service is asking for trouble and is a waste of money. The closer you approach "perfect" security, the more of your personal security you e…

I disagree with the password manager as an example. If you don't like the SaaS products offered by some password manufacturers, then don't use them? There are many other non SaaS options. A large chunk of the world lives in the cloud, whether its Azure or AWS, there is an enormous amount of infrastructure that is sitting in the cloud as a service. For many a SaaS password manager is better security for them than what…

"Cloud" isn't a reason for password managers IMO. Password managers don't need to sell you cloud subscriptions for you to use cloud in the same way desktop apps don't need to sell you OS licenses for you to use a desktop app.

And yes personally I avoid purchasing them (see post title) but it's just another thing to filter out. Especially since sometimes apps actually have useful/novel cloud integrations and other times they just want the subscription money from making you put it in their choice of cloud.

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