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

LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

computerworld.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 227 posts

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#21

Post by bad_user »

Shopper0552 wrote: post #3
vunderba wrote: post #2

If I'm evaluating a potential application whose core functionality does not require external resources/servers (Dropbox for example) and they don't at a minimum offer some kind of perpetual fallback license (aka the Jetbrains annual subscription model), then I straight up bounce. Examples of good alternatives - Pixelmator > Photoshop - Davinci Resolve > Premiere - Reaper > Audition I have no interest in renting my to…

Do you have any good alternatives to Photoshop that are open source? And that are not GIMP. Nothing against GIMP, I just found it too hard to learn coming from photoshop. I'm looking for a simple editor that can do color adjustments, crop/resize images, and add text.

GIMP takes some time getting used to, but it's reliable, it will stick around and having used it for the past 20 years, I have issues switching to something else.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#22

Post by publicola1990 »

vunderba wrote: post #2

If I'm evaluating a potential application whose core functionality does not require external resources/servers (Dropbox for example) and they don't at a minimum offer some kind of perpetual fallback license (aka the Jetbrains annual subscription model), then I straight up bounce. Examples of good alternatives - Pixelmator > Photoshop - Davinci Resolve > Premiere - Reaper > Audition I have no interest in renting my to…

Isn't it dogmatic to think so. Sometimes it makes sense to rent tools.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#24

Post by vunderba »

publicola1990 wrote: post #22
vunderba wrote: post #2

If I'm evaluating a potential application whose core functionality does not require external resources/servers (Dropbox for example) and they don't at a minimum offer some kind of perpetual fallback license (aka the Jetbrains annual subscription model), then I straight up bounce. Examples of good alternatives - Pixelmator > Photoshop - Davinci Resolve > Premiere - Reaper > Audition I have no interest in renting my to…

Isn't it dogmatic to think so. Sometimes it makes sense to rent tools.

Naturally. I've rented an mini excavator in the past to dig up stumps for a one time job. It made sense more sense to rent it since it was for a one-time task, and purchasing the kubota would have cost more than 5k.

Given we're on HN news, I thought it was implied that I was referring mostly to the exhaustion at being faced with a perpetually increasing amount of rent-seeking in the form of SaaS.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#25

Post by jwr »

vunderba wrote: post #2

If I'm evaluating a potential application whose core functionality does not require external resources/servers (Dropbox for example) and they don't at a minimum offer some kind of perpetual fallback license (aka the Jetbrains annual subscription model), then I straight up bounce. Examples of good alternatives - Pixelmator > Photoshop - Davinci Resolve > Premiere - Reaper > Audition I have no interest in renting my to…

> I have no interest in renting my tools.

While I appreciate the sentiment, the world where you could use the same software for many years without updates is gone. These days developers have to invest significant time and effort into making sure the software just runs on the constantly updated operating systems and platforms — which costs money on an ongoing basis. Expecting your software to be updated regularly without paying regularly makes no sense.

So either you intend to run that exact binary that you downloaded (because that is the tool you bought), or the ongoing costs need to be covered somehow. Some companies do it through subscriptions and some play a game of "no, you don't have to update, but here is this new shiny (more bloated, too) version that we produce every 2 years, you can get it for $50 and OWN IT FOREVER (well, until the next shiny comes along in 2 years time". But it's a game, and the drawback is that there is incentive for bloating software instead of just maintaining it and fixing bugs.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#26

Post by vunderba »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #18
vunderba wrote: post #2

If I'm evaluating a potential application whose core functionality does not require external resources/servers (Dropbox for example) and they don't at a minimum offer some kind of perpetual fallback license (aka the Jetbrains annual subscription model), then I straight up bounce. Examples of good alternatives - Pixelmator > Photoshop - Davinci Resolve > Premiere - Reaper > Audition I have no interest in renting my to…

You actually can still buy Office. It's quite expensive though. I suppose it always was. https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=2113574&CLCID=0x10...

That's honestly less than I would have expected. I still have an old copy of Microsoft Office 95 though I no longer have the hardware with which to run it. Ditto a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS6 which I believe was the final version before they went full on subscription.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#27

Post by dreamcompiler »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #18
vunderba wrote: post #2

If I'm evaluating a potential application whose core functionality does not require external resources/servers (Dropbox for example) and they don't at a minimum offer some kind of perpetual fallback license (aka the Jetbrains annual subscription model), then I straight up bounce. Examples of good alternatives - Pixelmator > Photoshop - Davinci Resolve > Premiere - Reaper > Audition I have no interest in renting my to…

You actually can still buy Office. It's quite expensive though. I suppose it always was. https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=2113574&CLCID=0x10...

Here's what Microsoft won't tell you: If you buy standalone office and it is not allowed to phone home to Microsoft at least once a month, it stops working. This can happen if you use it on a disconnected computer or you just have a reverse firewall rule blocking microsoft domains.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#28

Post by s1artibartfast »

nitrogen99 wrote: post #13

Google docs doesn’t work?

It has the worst commenting and track history I've seen. My company went to Google docs about 5 years ago and I have steadily walked the work product of engineers go downhill because of it.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#29

Post by vunderba »

jwr wrote: post #25
vunderba wrote: post #2

If I'm evaluating a potential application whose core functionality does not require external resources/servers (Dropbox for example) and they don't at a minimum offer some kind of perpetual fallback license (aka the Jetbrains annual subscription model), then I straight up bounce. Examples of good alternatives - Pixelmator > Photoshop - Davinci Resolve > Premiere - Reaper > Audition I have no interest in renting my to…

> I have no interest in renting my tools. While I appreciate the sentiment, the world where you could use the same software for many years without updates is gone. These days developers have to invest significant time and effort into making sure the software just runs on the constantly updated operating systems and platforms — which costs money on an ongoing basis. Expecting your software to be updated regularly with…

While I do recognize those concerns I'll note that it is still a viable model and not just for indie devs. Look to the DAW world (Ableton, FL Studio, Bitwig, Logic, etc.) if you're ever curious about building a sustainable business model around a flat pricing structure.

Re: LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs

#30

Post by [deleted] »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #18
vunderba wrote: post #2

If I'm evaluating a potential application whose core functionality does not require external resources/servers (Dropbox for example) and they don't at a minimum offer some kind of perpetual fallback license (aka the Jetbrains annual subscription model), then I straight up bounce. Examples of good alternatives - Pixelmator > Photoshop - Davinci Resolve > Premiere - Reaper > Audition I have no interest in renting my to…

You actually can still buy Office. It's quite expensive though. I suppose it always was. https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=2113574&CLCID=0x10...

[deleted]
Post reply on HN