Are subscriptions making our software boring?

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I spotted an interesting discussion on the web that proposed that software releases weren’t “exciting” anymore because vendors no longer had to wow th
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Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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abbodi86, Alex5723

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..but I doubt any one of us would sleep outside of Best Buy to buy a new software release (new Apple iphones notwithstanding as their releases already create insanity)…

Apple Hongdae store opens in South Korea (home of Samsung, LG..)

When was the last time people packed a Microsoft Store (sorry, all failed and closed..), Google, store, Samsung store.. ? The last time I remember was with the release of Windows XP.

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Cybertooth

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If anyone finds software releases exciting, they should get out more 😉

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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Perturbance, SueW, NaNoNyMouse, Myst, Cybertooth, Alex5723

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I haven’t been “excited” by software for many a year.  The last time I think was when our offices got Windows NT – and I got a HUGE hard drive… a whole ten meg I think.

As for subscriptions – I hate the idea.  I want to buy the tools, use them as I need and be done with it.  Adobe had software I used a lot in the past and when I retired they were pushing the cloud and ‘on-line’ features and I wanted / needed none of it.  All my work/development was on my machine and drives and I worked independent of any connection.  Sure, there was the office network and WAN too but I didn’t need it to work.  Once, when we lost power (I was one of the only two that got UPS units for our desks) I was able to finish up my in-progress work, save everything and had no issues.  Everyone else who relied on our network lost almost all of what they were working on.

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The last time I was ‘excited’ was with Windows 95. That was a giant step forward.

Indeed, subscription is the death of software development. No longer a need to convince the audience to buy the latest release. We’re in the AEC business and as such rely heavily on Autodesk software. Most important software is Revit. Before there was subscription, Autodesk had to add just enough new feature to get their clients to buy the latest version. Now there’s only subscription and development has almost stopped. The annual release is mostly about minor things. So much so a group of BIG users, like the biggest architect firms around the world, wrote an open letter to Autodesk to display their concern about Revit’s future. In response, Autodesk more or less confirmed they hadn’t put in much effort in Revit lately. But they would surely get things going again. Like – yeah. Looks like the Revit team consists of only a couple of programmers, so I won’t hold my breath for those big steps that have to be made…

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We have become a pay as you go society. Companies like this model as it provides a constant stream of revenue and you have to keep paying to keep up with the updates. Music and video content has been doing this for some time now.

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I can’t count the number of times that I passed on a new version of Microsoft Office because the installed version that I used met my needs.  The unending feature bloat in the constituent applications in new versions was not an incentive to upgrade.  The only reason to upgrade was when the installed version reached EOL and security updates ceased.  Consequently, there was no revenue stream from this user for at least 10 years.  The subscription model turns everyone into a cash cow whether or not they actually need or want the “new and improved” versions.  I wonder how long it will take Microsoft before it begins charging everyone a monthly fee for Windows?

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David F, Myst, windbg, Cybertooth, JPMedia

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Apple still has a cult following. I think I saw an article that said it was increasing though when I looked at it it wasn’t by much. More power to them and the $2K they manage to extract from these folks every year. My Moto G Power 2023 (Android 13 and 2yrs of security updates) cost me about $175 incl case and screen protector, etc. My 15GB/mo / unlimited Verizon plan costs me$37/mo. Enables me to buy a new (rather old actually) chawan from Japan. I make phone calls. Who wins?

Verizon is probably my only paid auto subscribe and I don’t care if it doesn’t “improve”. I only keep things like Netflix, Max, Dis+ etc for a month or so and then tire of their offerings. Who wins?

Apple, for the moment, I guess… Though if I were to buy their stock, it would go down. btdt.

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Subscriptions for software that cost more for less. Upgrade your OS, ditch old software you’ve come to know and love, the latter installed with a one-time license fee. Hello Adobe, you know I’m talking to you.

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

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Cybertooth

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I’ve never owned, never wanted an Apple anything.  The last time I stood in line for anything tech related was at the release of Windows 98, but I wasn’t there for Windows 98.  The store was having a store-wide sale to promote Windows 98, and I was there for a Colorado Tape Drive for backup for my Windows 95 PC.

One of the very few times I have been picked at random was in that line, when one of the sales persons was walking along the line before opening giving away free stuff to reward the folks who had turned out.  I got a free copy of Windows 98.   But I didn’t install it for a couple of months.  I got my Colorado Tape Drive, a handful of blank tape cassettes, and went home a happy camper.

I spent a while getting the backup system setup and working, doing restores from the tape drive to make sure I could trust it.  Once I had all that straightened out, I finally got around to installing Windows 98.  My next OS upgrade was XP, because it was based on the NT kernel, not just a pretty face on DOS like Windows 95/98.  I skipped Vista, and upgraded to Windows 7.  I wouldn’t have upgraded to Windows 8 if it hadn’t been free; same goes for 8.1, 10, and 11.  I’d still be running Windows 7 if those hadn’t been free upgrades.

I do have a Revo Uninstaller subscription, and Microsoft 365, but I got into Malwarebytes Pro before it went to the subscription model, and the other tools I use haven’t gone there (subscription).  The audio and video software I use does not offer a subscription model, which is fine with me, because I would opt out.  What I’m using works just fine.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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samak wrote:

If anyone finds software releases exciting, they should get out more 😉

The last time I was ‘excited’ by anything computer related was way back in 1996 when Quake came out, and I stood outside the shop (in the days when we still had shops), waiting for it to open so that I could get my copy (and to be honest I still preferred Duke Nukem)

It’s not just that as you get old it becomes increasingly hard to get excited by anything, it’s also that none of the stuff that comes out nowadays is intrinsically new or exciting, no matter how hard they try and convince us otherwise. Copilot? Mweh, it will be just another Paperclip, only even more irritating

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NaNoNyMouse wrote:

Copilot? Mweh, it will be just another Paperclip, only even more irritating

Why is Copilot irratating? You don’t have to use it.

(And I suspect you haven’t, as I find it very useful.)

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b wrote:

Why is Copilot irratating? You don’t have to use it.

Not only do I personally have no use for it, it isn’t irritating for me; it’s gone.  Without Edge and Bing, Copilot is powerless, and in my case, it’s gone.

It isn’t just gone from the Taskbar, it’s not even an option on the Taskbar.  I know that @RetiredGeek brought up an issue with Word RE Edge/Bing, but that isn’t a feature I would ever use.  Whenever I insert anything into a Word document, I already have the file on my PC.

I’ve never really looked for “exciting” software.  I’ve always looked for practical, productive and efficient software.  It’s a lot like driver updates for me.  If it’s doing what I want it to do, and I’m not missing functionality that I need for my purposes, there’s no reason to update software other than security/privacy/bug fixes.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Mark, Cybertooth, Alex5723

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bbearren wrote:

it isn’t irritating

Thanks for the confirmation.

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Sorry for the off-topic post, but I couldn’t send a PM.

You do not have permission to access message system
So, @bbearren, how did you remove items from your taskbar context menu?

Mine currently looks like this:

And I’d really like to “clean it up” so it looks more like yours by removing some of the items I never use.

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I’m now playing with M365/Word with Copilot and there are many times I don’t need it to help me write a letter, or if I do let it, it’s wrong and guesses too much.

It’s still young and especially in a business setting, should not be rolled out without understanding risks of potential information leakage or exposing information to the user that they may have had access to already, but didn’t realize it and you didn’t either.

I just don’t want Microsoft to get so fixated on it, that they forget that they need to pay more attention to recovery partition details.

In Bing it will sometimes curate answers from wrong locations (example it will gather up both Windows and Apple links when I’m specifically asking about a Windows thing.  It’s beta and it shows.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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TechTango, Mark, Cybertooth, satrow, PKCano

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Like many here I haven’t been excited about a new version of software for at least 20 years. I can’t remember exactly what it was that was exciting, possibly windows 95 or Windows 98. More than that I deeply resent the money grabbing notion that we should essentially buy the software again every year in the form of a subscription. My particular annoyance is with Quicken where I previously bought an update every two to three years and now, I essentially have to rebuy it every year just to keep the downloading ability active. The new features are so obscure that I have no use for any of them and at the same time they still haven’t improved some of the ongoing annoyances that have been in the software for years.

I took a shot at using Office 365 when I bought my latest computer, but I gave it up after the first-year subscription expired. Now that I’m retired, I have very little use for Excel or much anything aside from an occasional need for Word or Outlook. I fell for their offer for the minimal version at $2 a month and found that all that it offers is more online storage, which I really don’t need.

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I do have a Revo Uninstaller subscription, and Microsoft 365

Same here.  For me, some (emphasis on “some”)  subscriptions aren’t all bad.

For example, yes, I subscribe to Office 365, but it’s installed on 9 machines.  So 9 machines = $11 each per year including 1TB Onedrive cloud (encrypted containers no problem).  I share it with 5  people, the latest of whom is my granddaughter who is starting nursing school with a shiny new Dell laptop I helped her spec out.  I also have 365 it installed across 4 of my computers at home.  I realize some may disagree, but in this circumstance for me it works.

Desktop mobo Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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I yearly renew licenses to Acronis, Kaspersky, HitmanPro.Alert, AskWoody, Apple Music/Classical (monthly), iCloud 50GB (monthly).

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TechTango

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HitmanPro

I used to have this app.  It was handy.  Forgot all about it.  Thanks for the reminder.

Desktop mobo Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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Alex5723

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FWIW: When FOSS software satisfies or exceeds individual needs, donations are my preferred option over subscriptions. YMMV

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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David F, satrow, Myst

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“Upgrades” these days are most often regressions/downgrades.

No thank you.

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Seattle27

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