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Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
101–110 of 710 posts
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#102Yes, 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…
> why a password manager should be a SaaS
While I fully agree with you, how do you sync passwords across my 3 laptops and 3 phones without a SaaS offering?
While I don't use this feature, but it is common for ppl to share an account. How can I securely share credentials with family members?
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#103The 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…
Maintenance doesn't require a subscription. When my car needs repair, I pay for it. I don't "subscribe" to a maintenance plan (though such plans exist, they are on average more expensive). It used to be commonplace for softare updates, new versions, etc. to be sold as they became available. If you wanted the new features or needed the bug fixes, you bought the update. If you didn't need them, you kept using the old v…
I agree. We both think that updates require money.
I never said that maintenance requires a subscription. But that it’s naive to think that you can buy software and then to be entitled to maintenance forever.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#104I am and it's only going to get worse with even car companies demanding subscription to enable features in cars. SAAS was a revolutionary idea once, hopefully one day someone will decide to sell a product or service for a one time upfront cost again and it will be welcomed like a breath of fresh air.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People expect software to work for some time.. On their new device, after the OS update. Bugs need to be removed, new features built. The software will be maintained, because the software developer needs to continue to sell the software to new customers. Hence OS compatibility will be maintained, bugs will be fixed. It's not like the developer stops working on the software immediately after you, one customer, purch…
The same is true for a car manufacturer. It’s not like they stop producing new cars after they’ve sold you one. You still don’t expect the updated breaking system once the line is out.
Physical products have warranties. They get fixed if there are defects.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#106Yes, 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…
This is exactly correct.
The only things worth paying for as a subscription are things that require continued human working, or at least a human on-call, period.
In my experience, everything else that's worth it ought to be able to survive on donations (either of labor or money).
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#107Not 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…
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 the software better, it makes it worse. (or at the very least to improve much slower)
I basically pirate everything that requires a subscription now or us a FOSS alternative, even though there was a period of time where I would pay for software between when I was poor and had to pirate everything and now when I can afford to pay for subscriptions but the situation with lack of control over SaaS is so fucking untenable that I just can't. I don't believe SaaS is moral, it basically removes all the power from the consumer and allows the software providers to rake you over the coals over and over. I'm not interested in funding such things. I feel more comfortable with piracy than I do with SaaS on a philosophical level.
SaaS companies don't innovate, they buy competitors because they're using an abusive business model with bad incentives.
P.S. SaaS can probably be implemented in a decent way, and some SaaS does actually provide an ongoing service, but in general I believe my point stands.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#108Not 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…
> I saw too many software companies go out of business because not enough people wound up upgrading to the next major version Do you have examples? Most new businesses fail regardless of their business model, so you'd have to argue that this phenomenon was somehow worse for non-subs. > Not to mention that a yearly subscription is cheaper than buying outright Not in the long term.
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 paying, the better the product is likely to be. With a once off purchase, any future improvements are based on a Ponzi scheme requiring constant new users which is unsustainable.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#109Not 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…
I once worked in a small company developing niche but expensive Windows software. The company enjoyed (probably still enjoys) relatively limited competition in it's space. During start up, the program checks for the version of Windows which it's being run on and refuses to boot if it's different to the one specified for that version.
This software was mainly sold to mid-large size companies, so although it could be trivially defeated with minimal reverse engineering, I doubt this was ever a real issue.
Every new version of Windows that Microsoft released would coincide with many customers purchasing the latest version of our software.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
#110Yes, 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…
> why a password manager should be a SaaS While I fully agree with you, how do you sync passwords across my 3 laptops and 3 phones without a SaaS offering? While I don't use this feature, but it is common for ppl to share an account. How can I securely share credentials with family members?
But what you're really asking is how can you share them conveniently and quickly.
Maybe the answer is, you can't. Write them down, text each other, call each other and read it over the phone.
Making a spare key for my parents to get in my house isn't "click a button easy," I have to go to the hardware store -- and maybe THAT'S the appropriate level of difficulty.