Let's Talk about Subscription based Software

[Sentacotus]

Let's talk a moment about a topic I feel gets little attention around these parts. It seems everything now in days on PC is turning to the subscription based model. Love it or hate it that's where companies see the money and from a purely business stand point it seems to make sense. Why charge people once for software they own once when you can keep charging them to just use it? Certainly it has its perks like being able to pick and choose what programs you want for a seemingly low price like in Adobe's CC and offsite storage. However, to me it seems like the cons far out weigh the positives and represent a trend in software I feel uneasy with.

Its the realization that eventually when it comes to PCs Macs or whatever you won't own anything. You see with people like Adobe making money off of users having no choice but to continually pay into a system to just use their programs what's to prevent say Microsoft or Apple saying that you have to have an account with them and a subscription continually paid into to just have an OS? You may say they can't get away with something like that but hell look at Office 365 now something as simple as using powerpoint and word is now going subscription based (granted with that at least they still let you access and edit files but we'll get into that in a minute).

Then we get into the worst of it. Denial of access to files if you stop your subscription. The worst perpetrator here being Adobe CC. Lets say you cancel your subscription to Adobe CC. You have 30 days to save all of your files and projects into a different file format or else you lose access to them because the program will lock you out of even getting to your files. Now you could get into some legal issues how that denys you to access potentially creative work on your end and stuff you possibly have trademarked but frankly I don't have the lawyer expertise to get into that (not to mention they probably have a clause in their i agree section no one reads saying they have the right to screw you). It does not deny that it is pure and simple strong arm tactics to essentially force you to keep paying into something potentially JUST to access your stuff that you made.

Think of it like this. You are an artist but need the canvas, paint, and supplies to do it. Instead of having the option to buy it from me and be able to use it for years on end you HAVE to rent it from me for $20 a month and if you stop paying me then I take away all the paintings and projects you made until you decide to keep paying me.

Now don't get me wrong there are some programs that I can understand having a subscription based model because that's the only way to sustain them. Things like tunnelbear, server clients, and numerous other services which need money to simply maintain the service and resources they're providing to you as a service. Frankly, I don't know if there would be any other way or model to sustain things like this.

Now I get when you buy software you are buying a license to use it (for however many people thats one thing) and you don't technically own the rights to it but when companies decide that they want to deny basic functionality and strong arm me into paying into a perpetual system then that's when I put the can on it. Personally, I'd rather work hard, save money, and pay the steep price in the begging for good software and be able to use it indefinitely then have to pay $50 a month ($600 a year) for stuff that can effectively be pulled from me at anytime.

[Leona]

A subscription based system for something like an operating system just wouldn't work. They have too many users that don't have access to a payment method and they would probably not be able to make a reliable profit from something like that.

[Sentacotus]

A subscription based system for something like an operating system just wouldn't work. They have too many users that don't have access to a payment method and they would probably not be able to make a reliable profit from something like that.

I agree I just wouldn't be surprised if MS or anyone else tried it just to see what they could get away with.

[Ken Masters]

No-one in his right mind would implement this as an actual business model for OS.

It alienates at least half the userbase, and the profit wouldn't make up for it.

Besides, Microsoft already has tons of issues with the amount of pirated versions of its older OS like Windows 7. Making a subscription based OS would just increase the piracy a lot more :/