Software subscriptions

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Having just seen an article about Adobe moving to a subscription model – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22432171, and wondered, what with MS going that way with Office 365, what people think of this. Will it mean that more people will use the free options (Libre/Open Office, The Gimp et al)? The prices being touted put me off, and I would be concerned that they may well be increased substantially in the future, so I wouldn’t want to be locked in to them. I use Office 2003 Pro and The Gimp for these, and think I’ve had my money’s worth!

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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I for one won’t be jumping on the bandwagon any time soon. I bought Office 2010 Pro and still use Office 2003 Pro but I very much doubt that I’ll be buying any further versions! Being retired the only reason I bought 10 was so I could keep up and keep contributing to the Lounge. I guess some time in the next couple of years I’ll be moving to Libre Office and start contributing posts on those products vs Office once 2003 & 10 fall out of use. Just my two cents… :cheers:

Just had another thought I wonder how long it will be once they get the world hooked on subscriptions that they start acting like the magazine industry charging current subscribers considerably more to renew than what they sucker, sorry charge, new users for the same service! I’m just sayin’

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
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I guess some time in the next couple of years I’ll be moving to Libre Office and start contributing posts on those products vs Office once 2003 & 10 fall out of use.

I installed Libre Office on my home PC. I have found that it’s not completely compatible with MS Office. For example, things I have done in MS Publisher are missing sections of the document when I open them in Libre Office.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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This old bloke no longer supports any “yearly” subscription services. Still running XPPro. Office 97, which does all I need, Word, Access, Excel and PPoint. Running old versions of programs, which have now decided to charge a yearly fee to upgrade, without any problems. MS Office has become too big, bloated and expensive for the majority of computer users. There are free single programs, without the bloatwear, available if a person only wants a word or excel clone. Not everyone is running a multi-national corporation

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… Still running XPPro. Office 97, which does all I need…

Not for long, re XP (see my post here).

Versions of Microsoft Office past their Product Lifecycle expiration date are insecure. I admit I run one myself on my XP box, the risk is mitigated by not opening any Office files from suspect sources, and running a realtime virus checker (I use Avast) that scans scripts in MS Word (Excel?) documents.

As features are added to Open Office/Libre over time, fewer and fewer non-professional users will need MS Office. Hopefully there’ll eventually be Windows Update-type updates available for these cheaper options so those with low broadband allowances don’t have to download the whole package every time they update.

I find it disturbing that the cost-per-license for Office via installation disk has massively risen with Office 2013. Office 2010 Home & Student Edition, with three licenses, used to cost 100-and-something dollars. Now for a similar price for you get only one license for the 2013 disk. So there’s that rorting, and we in Australia are not inexperienced at scam prices, Microsoft charges us way over and above U.S. prices and flat out lied for some years that they charged the same prices worldwide. And remember how Microsoft hooked everyone on Windows Live Messenger before stuffing it with irritating ads? Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world partly because of these sort of tricks.

So I don’t doubt that Microsoft will jack the price of Office up as far as they can get away with after the disk version ceases to be sold maybe starting with the next major version. Professional users will still have to buy it since, as with .docx, Microsoft create new proprietary document versions with every new Office major version, and to read them 100% of the time requires the latest version. A good reason to never save/distribute documents in the latest MS formats, always save documents as .doc!

Asus N53SM & N53SN 64-bit laptops (Win7 Pro & Win10 Pro 64-bit multiboots), venerable HP Pavilion t760 32-bit desktop (XP & Win7 Pro multiboot), Oracle VirtualBox VM's: XP & Win7 32-bit, XP Mode, aged Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2019s (8" & 10.1"), Blu-ray burners, digital cameras, ext. HDDs (latest 5TB!), AnyDVD, Easeus ToDo Backup Home, Waterfox, more. Me: Aussie card-carrying Windows geek.

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This is not to say that subscription prices won’t increase but there are market forces at work too. Google Apps, Libre/Open Office, & others will force Microsoft to be very careful about pricing. Viable competition is good for consumers.

Joe

--Joe

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I agree that viable competition is good for customers but do we have it? The ‘free’ Office suites suffer from many thinking ‘free’ is equal to poor quality. Cheap office suites suffer from cheap equals naff. Are there any expensive Office Suites (comparable to MS’s)? If there are they suffer because most businesses buy MS Office and people will tend to buy the same as it’s what they’re used to. I’m with RetiredGeek here – we’ll see!

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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Since I am in the category of “Auld Phart”, the Office 2010 we updated to when it was available should work fine as long as I need it. I only use Word and Excel anyway, so I should be fine for many years.

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Personally when I get a new laptop here shortly I will be moving to Office 365. As it is, I have Office 2010, but kept my Outlook ’07, but I find myself using the Office documents through SkyDrive more and more, and opening from the desktop less and less. It works great for me.

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I, too, am a “Auld Phart”, in the retired category. Color me impractical, out-of-date, or stupid (take your pick :)), but I’m still using Office 97, even though I’m running Win7 Pro on a desktop SSD. The only two Office apps I use are Word and Powerpoint, and they work just fine for my purposes.

I’ve had it with subscription software, and always look for the one-time good-forever purchase (be it shareware or commercial) or, better yet, well-reviewed freeware. If the latter, I don’t hesitate to make a financial contribution to the author if the software is polished and I use it frequently.

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Don’t forget that the software you “bought”, you didn’t buy. You only have a license to use it.
Why that scam has been allowed to continue is beyond me.

What Adobe and MS (Office 360) are doing now is simply an outgrowth of the same nonsense. For most users, it is just more cloud BS. (Oooooh, the cloud! I swoon! I faint!)

There are some people who really need to access their software and data from many locations, and for them it may be useful.

However, there are other solutions that work just as well or better, do not lock you in to subscriptions or proprietary formats, and are far cheaper in the short and long term.

For instance, GoToMyPC, WebEx, LogMeIn, and similar remote offerings let you use your own computer from any other computer in the world. You not only have access to a particular piece of software, you get to use all your other stuff (notes, email and files of all kinds) – everything. They are amazingly simple and not at all expensive. There are even free remote products that can suit most needs. Futhermore, there is no lock-in to a particular product (Adobe, MS, etc). Changing services or eliminating remote access altogether does not strand your work on someone else’s server, or cause you to buy new software.

There are large selections of portable programs (that’s what they are called), many free, that can be carried on a thumb drive and run on any computer. I use them and never had a problem.

I just heard of a new gadget that can solve the remote problem. They are really powerful, full fledged computers that can do everything and you can take them with you wherever you go. They are called laptop computers. (sorry, I couldn’t resist that sarcasm)

P.T. Barnum said, “Never give a sucker an even break”. Adobe, MS and others have learned that lesson well.

We have become a world of suckers. That’s a club I don’t want to belong to.

ps: I have been in many aspects of the computer industry since 1987. I am presently an IT Mgr.

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I do not care much for subscription bases software solutions. As someone who uses only the basic power of Office 2007 I will probably be moving to Google Docs or Libreoffice when 2007 support ends. MS is using 365 to milk the last $$$ out of their product, I see no earth shattering changes between 2007 and 2013 office. Since they cannot improve it enough anymore to justify an upgrade by most users now they will just charge you and update only if they feel like it. (Think IE 6’s long lifespan) Users of 365 will be using antiquated software and still paying for it because there is no incentive to improve it if the money is still rolling in.

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I do not care much for subscription bases software solutions. As someone who uses only the basic power of Office 2007 I will probably be moving to Google Docs or Libreoffice when 2007 support ends. MS is using 365 to milk the last $$$ out of their product, I see no earth shattering changes between 2007 and 2013 office. Since they cannot improve it enough anymore to justify an upgrade by most users now they will just charge you and update only if they feel like it. (Think IE 6’s long lifespan) Users of 365 will be using antiquated software and still paying for it because there is no incentive to improve it if the money is still rolling in.

Your opinions about subscription software are fine. If you choose to move to some other suite go right ahead. But you obviously have not been tracking the changes to Office 365. Microsoft has been releasing changes on a regular basis, just about monthly to Office 365. And if you think the Office 365 software is or will be antiquated what do think that Google Docs or LibreOffice is feature wise when compared to Office?

Joe

--Joe

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I think you will find that Adobe CS6 had a subscription service before Microsoft. There is also a subscription service for CorelDRAW, and for such online resources as lynda.com.

Adobe began by charging $50/month, but offered a $30/month for the first year (which I have), and I noted Staples selling a one-year subscription for $240 this week, ‘in-store only’, which presumably means that you can’t get it online. Anyone who is near such a store might be interested in that (and it may be Staples or Business Depot – I never have quite figured out if they merged or co-exist).

I get the impression from that that there may be any number of price adjustments as vendors search for the sweet spot for price and volume. I think it unlikely that one pricing model will be adopted to the exclusion of the other; there are sound business arguments for having both available.

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I started moving to LibreOffice (LO) and was just about ready to pull the plug on MS Office 2007 when LO started corrupting files, making them inaccessible, so much as I like its simpler feel it is it that got dumped.

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I use Adobe’s products to earn my living. The thing I hate about the subscription model is that if you don’t pay your monthly fee, you don’t have access to your software. I want the availability of my software to be independent of my ability to pay for it. If I’m having a cash-flow problem, the last thing I need is to lose access to the tools that are required to generate my income. I want it to be MY decision as to when I update my software, not Adobe’s. I want forever access to the tools for which I purchased a license. If I stop my subscription, then I want to at least be able to continue using the product as it existed up to that date. And the other thing that I hate is that Adobe is not offering options. You have no choice but to go with the subscription model. I prefer choices. And I’m okay with having to pay more sometimes to get those choices.

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Celkins,

IMHO you do have choices, e.g. use another tool. Yes it may take getting used to and you many not have as many features but if you do a good evaluation of the features you actually use/need and then look around I’m sure you can find something to meet your needs it might even be open source and free. If enough people/organizations do this kind of due diligence and start switching just watch Adobe change their policies or become another IBM PC / Clone story. YMMV. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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I have a thought about monoplysoft’s latest with it’s subscription to Office 2013. You know, buy it today for $100.00, then in one year you pay another $100.00 to keep using it. Let’s think of it like your car. After one year, it only starts. You put it in gear and the engine dies. You have to either pay a monthly fee ($1000.00) or an annual fee ($10,000.00) just to be able to use your car. It’s the same thing with software subscriptions.

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So I don’t doubt that Microsoft will jack the price of Office up as far as they can get away with after the disk version ceases to be sold maybe starting with the next major version. Professional users will still have to buy it since, as with .docx, Microsoft create new proprietary document versions with every new Office major version, and to read them 100% of the time requires the latest version. A good reason to never save/distribute documents in the latest MS formats, always save documents as .doc!

You can find a free docx viewer here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4

Microsoft provides viewers for other Office programs as well.

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