Yes, absolutely. Being frugal is one thing, but there's also the mental baggage of having these renewing financial decisions stacking up. I am begrudgingly a Photoshop/Lightroom subscriber but resented the monthly fee to add Premiere and paid $x00 for DaVinci Resolve Studio. I definitely appreciated their model of having a generous free tier so I could learn the software and have it prove its worth, then a one-off charge buy it properly (even though I barely need any of the unlocked features).
Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
351–360 of 710 posts
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#352Not 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…
Software companies made no money before subscriptions? How did they last decades?
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#353>So yeah, why is that? And is anyone else tired of the constant barrage of subscriptions for things that should be one off purchases? It's extremely tiresome. And surely the only motives are profit and control. It's gotten so bad that now auto manufacturers are charging monthly subscriptions to use features that are built into the car that you have already purchased.[0] It's a disturbing trend that will eventually ha…
Cars are funny. The automakers pretend they are simply selling an object for a pile of money, but in the real world of the dealership & lending ecosystem it's all 60-72 month loans and service contracts and warranties. And it's all pretty smarmy compared to what people would accept from a reputable national brand. If cars are subscription products anyway, then having the automakers internalize & centralize that part…
A loan from the bank is very different than a service or subscription with the manufacturer to me
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#354I run Linux on my HP laptop. I don't use any proprietary software. So, for myself, I don't see this buy vs. subscribe dichotomy.
By the way, I'm using Linux Mint + MATE and everything works pretty well.
Unfortunately, my work supplied computer is a pretty locked down Windows with a limited corporate approved software selection. Luckily, this selection includes VirtualBox! ;)
So, with VB, I'm able to do all my dev work in a Linux VM (I run both Mint and Alpine..)
You may want to consider trying some Free / Open Source software alternatives to your current setup if you are tired of subscriptions..
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#355First of all I totally agree with you; the industry has turned to more rent seeking than it did previously. I think park of why this has happened is also related to the transition to cloud computing. This means that unlike earlier versions, modern photo editing software includes cloud storage and computing and therefore you have recurring upkeep costs for the software maker.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
> old versions quickly become useless without active maintenance. I think this is somewhat exaggerated. Not to mention that if you're using older versions of 3rd party software, you can use older versions of the OS too. In fact, many people don't like to update their OS version. If it ain't broke... > Meanwhile the subscription services largely keep pace with one another and stay compatible because most users are on…
Is it? A lot of my favorite games no longer work on the latest operating systems because they were on a buy once model. Others had their multiplayer shut down. As for upfront paid software, sometimes it's also just not worth it to the developer to make a whole new version anymore or they shut down. The shareware industry is pretty much dead today, for example, although free trials for cloud subs are still very common…
phrom already mentioned the "old subscription-products die" aspect.
The other thing games tended to do, that is basically a subscription, was frequent, sometimes yearly, releases. You just buy this years iteration of fifa or CoD. Playing the latest "version" will on current hardware, just like a subscription. Compare that to Fortnite, where you don't have a choice but play the latest version (i heard they removed building?!? not that i liked it, but that's certainly a change!).
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#357And this is exactly the reason I self host[0]. I am pretty sure it's not just me. I have seen r/selfhosted[1] skyrocket in it popularity over past year or two. The number of applications that you can self host are increasing daily. The only problem at the moment with self hosting seems to be the maintenance and setup but that also will be solved once many people start doing it. History repeats itself. Self hosting to…
You self-host things that are easily self-hostable. You wouldn’t self-host something like emails or error reporting.
Email is only difficult to self host because it was intentionally corrupted by the major players using bad responses to spam as an excuse and now you need to stay in their good books to send.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not going out of business, but on the iPad there is a drawing app called Procreate which is a one time purchase. It’s decent, but in the two years I’ve had it, nothing has really improved and there is a whole lot missing or to be desired. Meanwhile some subscription apps have come to the iPad and they are absolutely packed with every feature you could possibly want. For any well run company, the more the users are pa…
By this principle, every physical product in the world would be "a Ponzi scheme".
Most physical products don't require constant work to be done. Software will mostly stop working properly if not updated.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#359Earlier 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.
Lastpass didn't deliver a single improvement, but they did double the yearly price
Switch to 1password or something else ? That's the nice part about subscription - when it's about to expire it's easy to switch. Just make absolutely sure you remove payment info from that scammer site - they charged me for a year after I canceled and supposedly "refunded me" when I went to support forums- but never actually saw money refund. Couldn't be bothered to go further but just the fact that they will charge post cancelation is extremely scummy.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#360Not 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…
“ By this point, the idea of "owning" software feels positively archaic to me”
Just my two cents but your comment here seems like it was pulled out of a future corporate dystopian novel.
Most “subscription” models I see these days are more cash grabs than actual continued support and feature enhancements. Just take a look at the ios app store if you want to see simple apps exploiting a “subscription” model.