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

Tell HN: A Conversation Needs to Be Had over Subscription Software

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 329 posts

Re: Tell HN: A Conversation Needs to Be Had over Subscription Software

#121

Post by Tepix »

jsmith99 wrote: post #56
ryandrake wrote: post #38

A lot of comments are already addressing this horrible trend of moving from standalone native software to “SaaS” but this one is also terrible: > now trying to trick people to use One Drive more A lot of software are now deliberately blurring the line between local storage and cloud storage, not just Office. When I choose to save a file, I expect to save it locally to my hard disk, in a file that I can find and manip…

There's a trade off between privacy and security when it comes to backups. For the average user, cloud backup is probably the right choice.

Does this justify harassing users over and over again?

I know many people are annoyed by the dialogues that popup these days where they ask your something they want ("do you allow xyz?") and the only two choices you have is "yes" and "not now" and they proceed to ask you again and again.

Same with with cookie dialogues. The vast majority of cookie dialogues employ dark patterns that make you give up the maximum amount of privacy if you click the most visually enticing option.

Re: Tell HN: A Conversation Needs to Be Had over Subscription Software

#122

Post by Farbklex »

Companies are creating costs for the sake of creating costs.

Remember any recent big UI redesign in an app you use? Were you unhappy with the previous UI? Is the new design a big improvement compared to the previous?

Most likely not. But many hours have been spent on meetings, designs and implementation to ship a new UI to all end users.

I think if you have a lot of employees you need to find work for them. Growth, new features and redesigns are good for everyones career. No one except for already happy customers benefit from keeping the status quo. But pretty much everyone involved in the company and _maybe_ most customers will be happy when the software changes.

No one wants to declare software as 'done' or at the very least 'feature complete'.

Re: Tell HN: A Conversation Needs to Be Had over Subscription Software

#125

Post by Tepix »

dgudkov wrote: post #119

Software is made and supported by software developers and the developers want a recurring pay. Basically they want their employers to subscribe to their services. No wonder the employers transfer the subscription model up the value chain. While there are cases of obvious abuse of the subscription model, in general, the subscription model for complex software is here to stay. Simple, one-off applications that don't re…

It's gone too far obviously. Software like Photoshop should be available to buy, if you don't want the latest features you don't pay for this year's update.

Re: Tell HN: A Conversation Needs to Be Had over Subscription Software

#127

Post by jtthe13 »

I'm a small business owner (20 people). To us Office 365 is one of the best value for money subscription. What's comparatively egregious is any single-product startup believing they can charge 10-12$ per user*month. That trend (pushed by VC-backed economics) has no long-term future IMHO. No wonder Slack had to sell. A feature doesn't automatically make a product, and a product doesn't lead to a sustainable stand-alone business. Hopefully there will be plenty of innovative startups capable of developing interesting things outside the typical 10$ sub business model.

Re: Tell HN: A Conversation Needs to Be Had over Subscription Software

#128

Post by MobileVet »

coldtea wrote: post #63
porcoda wrote: post #18

This sort of began when we all got the impression that software should be free, or that we pay a low price once and get indefinite free upgrades. Given that developers need to be paid, and resources cost money, there needs to be a way to rectify that gap between the consumer and maintainer. At one point we did so by paying for an initial version of software, and then paying for updates. Now that we don’t do that, but…

> This sort of began when we all got the impression that software should be free, or that we pay a low price once and get indefinite free upgrades. Blame the victim? We din't get any impression, as we don't set the prices. The companies set those prices. For example Adobe customers never got or set any impression that "software should be free/low price". They paid 100s to 1000s of dollars for each update or package r…

> We don't want "super cheap products", we want reasonably priced products we own after we buy.

I am afraid the ‘we’ here isn’t nearly as large a demographic as you think it is. If it was, we wouldn’t see the mass of advertising supported products we see.

Mainstream consumers do want free / cheap products, despite the many caveats associated with them and the market has adjusted to give them that.

The other follow up is, as a consumer, how do you determine what is a reasonable price for something. You have no visibility into the COGS other than your own experiences which may or may not apply.

Similar to the OP, I am not advocating for high subscriptions with no value or horrible dark patterns around unsubscribing…

Re: Tell HN: A Conversation Needs to Be Had over Subscription Software

#129

Post by thom »

frant-hartm wrote: post #35
thom wrote: post #30

Obviously tangential to the main point here, but one thing I'm grateful for is my bank (Monzo) allowing me to set up virtual cards. I no longer have any anxiety about speculative subscriptions because I can unilaterally cancel anything.

This obviously depends on T&C but failed payment usually doesn't mean cancelled subscription. Some services will block & close your account, but some will continue to accumulate the debt to a point where it's high enough to sell to debt collectors.

It’s really only a last resort in “disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard‘“ situations, but they’re welcome to fight me.

Re: Tell HN: A Conversation Needs to Be Had over Subscription Software

#130

Post by claaams »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #88
coldtea wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This sort of began when we all got the impression that software should be free, or that we pay a low price once and get indefinite free upgrades. Blame the victim? We din't get any impression, as we don't set the prices. The companies set those prices. For example Adobe customers never got or set any impression that "software should be free/low price". They paid 100s to 1000s of dollars for each update or package r…

This is not blaming the victim as there are no victims. OP’s is wrong that SaaS is rent sending. Software should not be free (in cost), yet always receive new features and updates. Indeed, the alternative is the ad-tech surveillance state.

In the case of Adobe you are paying for near malware Levels of surveillance on your device to use their products.
Post reply on HN