Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Cloud Shift

How does everyone feel about being forced into subscription models across the board?

Microsoft with Office 365
Adobe with Creative Cloud (http://blog.softwaremedia.com/2013/03/breaking-news-adobe-discontinues-creative-suite/)

I really don't like it. They are trying to force you to just pay them indefinitely. What is referred to as an annuity stream. And over a couple of years it will probably cost you more than if you had bought the package...unless they artificially raise the cost of the package.

If the larger corporations go along with it, then everyone will be stuck.

I just bought the full Microsoft Office 2013 for a new computer build rather than do the subscription, did think hard about OpenOffice, maybe some day

Having been an Oracle partner, I have no great affection for them, nor for what they have done to certain Open Source projects.

That said, the best M$ Office alternative is Libre Office. Once you change the default settings so that files are saved as .doc[x], .xls[x] most users will never know the difference.

Besides the added attack vectors, there just isn't a valid business reason to get M$ Office for every machine when you can get the essential functionality for free.

I have used OpenOffice and LibreOffice since forever.

The question I have is "why is it free?"

Occasionally I have made a contribution to the the "make a contribution" place -- where does that go? Is it good to contribute to the LibreOffice foundation?

Who (aside from the users) benefits from having a free alternative to Office? In most respects it actually is an improvement over the Office program.

I really got mad and vowed never to use MS Office ever again when I upgraded to Windows 8 and my MS Office suddenly became inoperative -- the license wouldn't transfer, even on the same machine.

[quote=Sandeep]How does everyone feel about being forced into subscription models across the board?

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Before I get into the bulk of my rant, I'd like to talk a little bit about the terminology.

Cloud Computing - "The use of computing resources that are delivered as a service over a network."-Wikipedia article on cloud computing. examples of applications/services that make use of cloud computing include MS Office 365, Google Drive, Practice Fusion, Netflix

subscription - the periodic selling of a service or product over a defined or non-defined term-period. examples of subscription products/services include an Economist subscription, MS Office 365, Netflix.

In today's software world, subscription-based software often requires the use of cloud computing. (Correct me if I'm wrong about that.)

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The subscription, cloud software trend makes me upset. Two reasons:
1. Pricing. Subscription for essential services/products shifts the consumer-corporation power balance in further favor of large corporations/organizations. This shift is a result of the stripping away of the consumer's right to use a product indefinitely. To illustrate the importance of 'right to use indefinitely,' take the following example. If a doctor's office becomes becomes heavily dependent on a subscription-based software to conduct certain day-to-day operations, then the producer of said software has undue leverage in pricing; in the short-term, intermittent increases in price may be deemed less expensive than the cost (time, effort, money) associated with switching to another software that can fulfill the same role.

I think subscription is fine for non-essential services/products.

2. Privacy. I assert that cloud applications are incompatible with Privacy. Cloud applications necessarily keep a log of your activities. I'd prefer if no one, government nor corporation, know what I do during the day if they don't have to know. I realize that there are privacy protocols in place for cloud computing, but I find no reason to guard my faith in them.

Unfortunately, I don't see an end to the software-subscription/cloud trend.

Yes, that is why I thought it wasn't necessary to qualify the difference. However, things like Adobe Creative Cloud basically phone home once a month to activate the software on your computer. Adobe is making plans to shift to a purely cloud model (internet bandwith requirements permitting)

They are also driving up prices for on-site software as well to motivate people to cloud and it's working pretty well. (e.g. SBS Standard fiasco). Pretty expensive to get onsite email with Exchange now. Nearly 4-5 times the cost.

Last week we lost our phones, internet, and tv for 2-3 hours due to our cable service being dropped. We saved a lot of money switching from ATT to cable last year, and so far it has been worth it, this being the first problem. If this only happened a few times a year for a few hours, I suppose SAS/Cloud based software would be adequate.

In regard to money issues, I doubt I will ever get as much return on investment in the future as I have on some programs I've purchased (or borrowed ), especially MS Access. But, there gets a point where the software that really makes you money or saves your time is worth paying for, even if they have you over a subscription barrel.

Yet, I am one of many birds that have flocked to AC instead of NextGen or eCW probably in small part over frugality. And one of the benefits for purchased software is that it can work just fine for a long time. I like to buy my cars and drive them until the repairs start irritating me rather than leasing a new car every 2 years.

If I was designing a perfect office EHR, I would have a hybrid where the system decides whether to use internet or intranet. Data would be synced between server and cloud frequently. Access would be available everywhere, yet you have your own data. The server could be cheaper since the internet could probably carry 99% of the load faster. And you would never be down due to the redundancy. And privacy would be perfect because I'm dreaming here.

True. But I think I'm willing to pay more in order to avoid subscriptions. For me, it's part of the cost of doing business. Hopefully, the extra money can be found from somehow reducing costs or increasing revenue.

Gosh, given the current climate (of people diving in subscriptions), I think whether or not you acquiesce has to be decided on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes, it may be necessary to say "screw you," and take the loss in time/money.

Perhaps I'm being too ideological.