Comment on - Buy Once Software
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
The IntelliJ products are not exactly “buy once” - if you want updated versions you need to keep paying periodically.
Not that I think that’s a bad thing necessarily - it doesn’t make sense to expect devs to continue working on something year after year when you’re not paying them for it.
I’m happy to pay for software, but I want more than just permission, I want long term security that my investment in the tool will last.
If IntelliJ would open source their oldest versions, I would make my boss buy me a copy of the nearest every year.
That sounds good on paper, but the chances that someone else will pick up the ball if they abandon it, even if it’s open source, are very slim. If you care about keeping it alive then paying them is a more effective strategy than hoping for random volunteer work by internet strangers.
You, on the other hand, have good chances of being able to learn new tools. So I think the need for this guarantee is exaggerated.
I’m a developer, so my chances are pretty good. But I take your point.
Even if I weren’t, there’s enough software options out there that I don’t have to pick between paying for proprietary software and living with abandonware.
So I think the need for this security is exaggerated.
Of course. I used proprietary software for a long time. Having things I relied on get abandoned got old, but it worked.
I just expect more from most of my software, now.
They are “buy once” in that their licenses include perpetual fallback. Whenever you stop paying, you retain your licenses perpetually
Not whenever, you need to be paying for a year and then then the latest version from a year ago is what you get the perpetual license for
Ulrich@feddit.org 1 year ago
But you can continue using the older version, yes?
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
Sure, as long as it works. Software has a tendency to stop working on newer OS:es or become subject to security exploits though.