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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?

#71

Post by gernb »

It really depends on what it is and how much value it adds to my life

Photoshop I pay. I tried switching to Affinity Photo but Affinity Photo had a poor workflow for my needs that would have ended up taking 10x longer. I value my time such that paying $120 for a year subscription to photoshop was well worth it rather than spending more time with a much slower solution.

On the other hand, I go on the Apple App store to look for an app that does perspective corrections for photos (more than the built in one). I found them but they want $6-$10 a month. This was something I just wanted to play with, not something I'm going to use a bunch so no, I didn't sign up.

Where it really bugs me is IoT devices that don't need to be IoT devices. I just don't buy them.

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

#72

Post by UIUC_06 »

Yes. I won't subscribe to anything (well, hardly anything), certainly not Adobe's bloatware.

TV series: I kinda liked the free sample of Tulsa King, but I'm for sure not subscribing to Paramount+ to see the rest. Not with a 7-day free sample, not with anything.

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

#73

Post by mhuffman »

cratermoon wrote: post #28

Rent-seeking is the end stage of late neoliberal capitalism.

Very sadly many of these businesses are structured as subscriptions, even when unnecessary, because investors currently LOOOOVE MRR. It is a sad situation when people shoehorn unnecessary "features" into a product or intentionally cripple it to get that subscription money. It often is not even going to new development, just there for the investors.

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

#74

Post by gernb »

solardev wrote: post #47

I actually prefer the subscription model for my software, if the monthly price is reasonable. It gives me faith that they can actually sustain their business and pay their employees to maintain and improve the service over time. I hate the other model, where with Windows and Office you end up getting useless forced upgrades and terrible makeovers because they need that upgrade revenue every few years. Or the ad drive…

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.

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

#77

Post by goldbattle »

baxtr wrote: post #61

The key word here is maintenance. Most things you own you also maintain yourself. It doesn’t hold true for software. People expect software to work for some time.. On their new device, after the OS update. Bugs need to be removed, new features built. You can and will fix your car. You will maintain it too. And you will happily pay for it. Same with the house you own. You might even renovate it, add a new level. It is…

I think this isn't the case for many open source projects I use. The reason I'm drawn to OSS is for the ability to be able to fix it down the line by myself. This also allows me to possibly contribute back those improvements so others can leverage them.

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

#80

Post by codetrotter »

blumomo wrote: post #38

Quiz: „You own nothing and you’ll be happy“ (imagine this with a strong German accent) Who is quoted here?

You didn’t own anything with a perpetual license either. I paid for a Windows license for Adobe CS4 Master Collection several years ago. I don’t even use Windows anymore. And even if I did I doubt CS4 runs well on Win 11.

And besides, even perpetual licenses require activation in order to work.

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