this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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Programming

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[–] Ertebolle@kbin.social 51 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I don’t want to pay once and own it forever, I want to pay once and then in a few years when it’s gotten buggy or incompatible or whatever I pay you some more money for an upgrade. If I use it a lot maybe I pay you more often, if I use it rarely maybe I pay less often, if I’ve got a lot of bills this month maybe I put it off a few months.

That’s really it - I’ll happily give you more money occasionally if I keep using it, but the burden of stretching that revenue so that you can make your payroll every 2 weeks ought to fall on you, not on me, and if you sit on your ass and barely make any changes for a year I shouldn’t be stuck paying you the same monthly fee while you do that.

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] lambda@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago

I agree with you on this. Lifetime licenses are great, but not feasible for some software. Anything that needs to be constantly updated needs steady income for developers. But, if their updates don't provide anything that you need then you should be able to keep using the version you are on for no additional money.

[–] radau@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

JetBrains did similar with their perpetual fallback license and it did ok. My only gripe with their strategy was it required either the upfront year paid or at the end of 12 months of month to month you would get the license. Issue was the license was from the first month so you would have to go downgrade. I like your idea way more

[–] hairyballs@programming.dev 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This: comparing something you buy once, with a license does not make a lot of sense. In SaaS, you get update, support, etc. For something critical, I'd rather get that than something that I buy once and may be buggued in the future.