My current machine is a 2017, but my wife is using my old 2011 and my notebook is from 2014. Some of the software I am using predates all of them. And it works just fine. I have an ancient version of Photoshop somewhere that does absolutely everything I need. There's a really old version of Cinema 4D that totally satisfies my needs. And a couple really old games are still fun when I play them now and then. The invoice from one of my most consistently used work-tools (Scrivener, an authoring software) is from 2011 (though I updated in 2018, with the update rate).
Why would I do anything on a subscription model? Take just Scrivener, which I've been using more or less constantly for 8 years. I've published only two books in that time since it's not my primary job. 3rd one is on its way. It'll be the first one that would pay for 96 months of subscription. Take Cinema 4D. I don't use it constantly. My other hobby is making games and some of them are computer games and some of those are 3D games (using Unity 3D). I usually work a few months on one, so out of the 10 or so years that I've been using Cinema 4D, it was actively used in about 10% of the time. Paying for a subscription is insane at that use-rate. But over the very long time period, a purchase isn't that expensive.
Especially for rarely-used software, subscriptions are just mental. They're the main reason I never got into the MMORPG scene, because I don't play every day and I don't want to pay for something that I sometimes don't play for half a year. And I don't want to feel pressure to play something just because I pay for it. Let me buy it, put it on my shelf and use it whenever I feel like it. And no, I don't pay you so that you can store your game on my harddrive. That's mental. If subscriptions were automatically paused when you're not actually using it - then we might have a reason to talk. As it is, I would be paying for the ability to maybe use something. Tell me that's a sane thing to do.
seriously ? (Score:2)
Is that a serious question?
My current machine is a 2017, but my wife is using my old 2011 and my notebook is from 2014. Some of the software I am using predates all of them. And it works just fine. I have an ancient version of Photoshop somewhere that does absolutely everything I need. There's a really old version of Cinema 4D that totally satisfies my needs. And a couple really old games are still fun when I play them now and then. The invoice from one of my most consistently used work-tools (Scrivener, an authoring software) is from 2011 (though I updated in 2018, with the update rate).
Why would I do anything on a subscription model?
Take just Scrivener, which I've been using more or less constantly for 8 years. I've published only two books in that time since it's not my primary job. 3rd one is on its way. It'll be the first one that would pay for 96 months of subscription.
Take Cinema 4D. I don't use it constantly. My other hobby is making games and some of them are computer games and some of those are 3D games (using Unity 3D). I usually work a few months on one, so out of the 10 or so years that I've been using Cinema 4D, it was actively used in about 10% of the time. Paying for a subscription is insane at that use-rate. But over the very long time period, a purchase isn't that expensive.
Especially for rarely-used software, subscriptions are just mental. They're the main reason I never got into the MMORPG scene, because I don't play every day and I don't want to pay for something that I sometimes don't play for half a year. And I don't want to feel pressure to play something just because I pay for it. Let me buy it, put it on my shelf and use it whenever I feel like it. And no, I don't pay you so that you can store your game on my harddrive. That's mental. If subscriptions were automatically paused when you're not actually using it - then we might have a reason to talk. As it is, I would be paying for the ability to maybe use something. Tell me that's a sane thing to do.