Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 710 posts

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

#131

Post by solardev »

lapcat wrote: post #55
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 gives me faith that they can actually sustain their business and pay their employees to maintain and improve the service over time. > Owning software is worthless to me because their effective lifespans are so short anyway, usually just a couple years, before the ecosystem has moved on and left them behind anyway. I find it strange that these two sentences are in the same comment.

How so? Tech is moving so fast across multiple fronts that software obsolescence happens much quicker than before, not due to the developer themselves, but I mean things like Windows changing driver models, Apple changing silicon, Android APIs constantly evolving, web technologies mutating like a cancer... old versions quickly become useless without active maintenance.

Meanwhile the subscription services largely keep pace with one another and stay compatible because most users are on the latest version.

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

#132

Post by hyperhopper »

ly3xqhl8g9 wrote: post #52

A heuristic for somewhat ethical subscriptions it's probably to decouple subscriptions from the calendar. Instead of $X/month, which must be paid even if using intensively, barely, or not at all the service, to have $X for Y amount of "no expiration date" minutes of service. Just want to try the service, pay $0.X for 10 minutes. Really like the service, pay $X++ for 1,000 minutes and not worry about it. Of course, th…

I don't understand paying for APMs.

Paying for actions makes sense, do X, get charged Y.

But is paying for APMs only charging you if you do actions faster? Or paying for minutes and you get a certain cap of actions? None of these are intuitive or reasonable.

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

#134

Post by bombolo »

PetahNZ wrote: post #125
bombolo wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use debian and i get a steady stream of updates! And I also don't get microsoft bugging me every day to install windows 11.

I am on Ubuntu and it constantly bugs me to upgrade: > New release '20.04.5 LTS' available. > Run 'do-release-upgrade' to upgrade to it.

At least it doesn't say you must buy a new computer to update :)

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

#135

Post by Enginerrrd »

thot_experiment wrote: post #107
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…

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…

Yeah, I'd appreciate updates if they just fixed bugs, security, and the stuff that was broke.

Instead, it's often endless addition of features no one asked for and UI redesigns/reorgnization. No thanks. I'd probably be willing to pay a subscription to withhold that part.

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

#136

Post by janef0421 »

itake wrote: post #102
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…

> 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?

You can use a keepass file synchronised with syncthing or a similar peer-to-peer sync system. To securely share credentials, you can share a separate password file with a unique password. There might be issue with file conflicts, but I find these can usually be managed manually; You might also be able to use a crontab.

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

#137

Post by joe_the_user »

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…

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

Aside from the other points people raise, the idea that someone continuing to pay money for software is going to keep the company from going out of business seems misguided.

I still subscribe, pay fucking money, to Meetup.com but over the years, despite a large subscriber base, the site become a buggy moribund piece of junk (but still the only thing in it's area). Such drift into worthless is typical for just about all subscriber software because software needs maintenance and because once a subscriber model reaches saturation point, the primary approach of management is to simply milk it for all the money possible by reducing labor costs to the minimum (look what Musk's doing to Twitter, it's not weird it's typical).

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

#138

Post by xtracto »

I hear you... between music subscription, film subscription, tv subscription and software subscription the monthly spending gets crazy.

Not long ago I was subscribed to a nice app called Saffron (dev is here in HN). But after a couple of years, I just couldn't justify paying to use that kind of app. Same with feedly, I was a paying customer for about 4 years.

Now I pay $5 for a Digital ocean instance and have several self-hosted open source alternatives. They do what I need, at an unbeatable price.

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

#139

Post by solardev »

gernb wrote: post #74
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.

I've never really seen a subscription program stagnate in practice. In fact I find that subscriptions allow companies to detach revenue from feature planning and deliver useful features rather than shiny new UIs.

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

#140

Post by phrom »

solardev wrote: post #126
thot_experiment wrote: post #107

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.

Funny you mention Windows and Office. Office is getting worse while moving to a subscription model, while Windows is getting worse by moving towards ads.
Post reply on HN