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Introducing ONCE, a new line of software products from 37signals: Pay one time, own forever.

⁨159⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨flumph@programming.dev⁩ to ⁨programming@programming.dev⁩

https://once.com/

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Comments

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  • magnetosphere@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Actually owning something you buy has become a selling point. Think about that for a minute.

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    • sadreality@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      This person is feeling the dystopia

      Contract law is powerful like that. Daddy tells you the deal, you take it when you use the product and/or service and now he can fuck ur waifu.

      You signed her away in these here T&Cs.

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  • qwertyasdef@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    …What are they actually launching though? I mean I love the payment scheme but I can’t get excited over this without an actual good product being sold.

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    • agressivelyPassive@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Products!

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      • FrostyCaveman@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        For business!

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    • Whirlybird@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Watch it be some rebranded existing FOSS product 😂

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    • jeremyparker@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Pretty sure they’re going to be handling the zombo.com nft sales

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    • SatyrSack@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      J A B B E R W O C K E Y

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  • Ertebolle@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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    • sadreality@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I am with this guy.

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      • 0x0@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        You’re their waifu? Watch for the T&Cs.

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    • lambda@programming.dev ⁨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.

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    • radau@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨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

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    • hairyballs@programming.dev ⁨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.

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  • gsfraley@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I mean, I get it, but there’s value in paying for support and updates, and it’s untenable for an organization to do that for free. I’m optimistic for software running under this model, I’d 1000% love to go back to the pay once per major version model, but “pay once forever” software leaves some unanswered questions.

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    • sebinspace@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      First question: the fuck are they actually making? They’re so vague about everything except how to pay.

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      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        They’ll tell you after you pay them

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      • Radium@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Typical DHH bullshit. He likes to be contrarian but he never actually follows through.

        He’s a little bitch and both Ruby on Rails and the world endurance championship would be better off without him.

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    • JoeCoT@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Right. I have boxes full of software I bought once, and I have the license to use it forever. But it's for Windows XP or older. I'd need emulators or WINE to run it now, and it's not really worth it. For some of it I even paid for a "lifetime" of updates, but that stops working out when they stop updating it. I apparently live a lot longer than 90s and 2000s software companies. Just let me pay for major versions again with a guarantee of updates for X years, and price it according to those expectations.

      37Signals is the company that made Basecamp, so presumably they are writing web software that would often be SaaS and letting you host it. So it's great that you'll be able to get it for one time purchase. But it definitely needs updates, as libraries change versions, new security flaws are uncovered, obviously for bugs, etc. Buying web application software is only as useful as the length of the updates included. Them providing the source is better, but since that's not open source exactly a community couldn't really work together to continue updates themselves.

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      • 0x0@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I apparently live a lot longer than 90s and 2000s software companies.

        In business lingo, that makes you an immortal.

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    • words_number@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I think there were probably times where software that got shipped actually worked. So you bought it and you could use it, no need for “maintenance”. I generally don’t think that’s the right word since software doesn’t decay on its own, so there’s nothing to “maintain” actively. Apart from compatibility of course, but if that breaks (e.g. with newer OS or hardware), it would make sense to pay for an update if you need it. Makes a lot more sense than those disgusting subscription scams that adobe is pulling off (and every other company seems to follow).

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      • mrginger@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        There were still bugs. You just learned how to deal with them or work around them.

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    • wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I agree. Per major version. I have SaaS for things such as word that really don’t change much.

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      • Whirlybird@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Have our hate? You can buy lifetime licenses for word etc. The subscription gets you much more than just the software.

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  • lazyforaname@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    “In the early 2000s, we were among the early pioneers leading the industry into the SaaS revolution. Now, 20 years later, we intend to help lead the way out. The post–SaaS era is just around the corner.”

    So, this company helped to get us into this whole subscription thing, and now they’re going to be the white knights to save us from it?

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    • mounderfod@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Yep, create the problem to sell the solution

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      • FinancesDrone98@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Why stop there? By spending an extra $15 every month you get the new, updated software every time it launches!

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    • msage@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It would have happened anyway.

      IT, and other industries have the same seasons like fashion.

      Oh, look, it’s the turtleneck season again!

      And people forget it’s happened many times before, and act like it’s something new every time.

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      • FinancesDrone98@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Kinda miss the semi-futuristic 80s and 90s though. Give me those grey boxes and neon lights again!

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  • Thisfox@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I love that no one has a clue if there is in fact anything for sale, or what it might be.

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    • Send_me_nude_girls@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Maybe a software lootbox. So you get a random surprise software, which is worse and more outdated than those on CDs you had glued to magazines.

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  • mojo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    What is the point of this and why is this being posted?

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    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      37Signals, the company that made Basecamp, is really good at getting news. They’re a really small company (less than 30 ppl), but the owners are all big in marketing. So they write books about culture and how to run a business, as well as how to get attention.

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  • myersguy@lemmy.simpl.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Few issues:

    1. What is being made? Can’t really care about it without having some idea
    2. What makes this company’s version of it worth our interest?
    3. How is it better than the FOSS solutions that in this day and age almost definitely already exist
    4. Why are we to put our faith in this group for pay once software when their two major products are SaaS?
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  • ck_@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Can someone enlighten me as to when this magical period of time was supposed to have been? As far as I can remember (end of the 80s), proprietary software never had any source available and always had an EULA stating that you don’t actually own anything. Best you could get was usage rights which were revocable for arbitrary reasons. So I’m a bit confused as to what they are talking about.

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    • flumph@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Right. Even pay-once software can have a phone home component that disables it if the creator deems it. So really we’re talking about old versions of software that just used offline license keys which were easily cracked.

      I honestly really like the Jetbrains model where they offer a subscription for continual updates but you also get a fallback version you can use forever if you decide to stop paying. It acknowledges that you aren’t costing them money if you aren’t getting the new updates.

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      • Pyro@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I came across a similar pricing model for Prodigy, and it does seem like a sensible option. You pay for updates, but will always be able to use the versions you already have in perpetuity.

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  • smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Sure, but can I:

    • use the software as I like to?
    • see how it works and adapt it to better fit my needs?
    • lend it to my friend to help him?
    • pay someone else to improve this software?
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  • Whirlybird@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    So zero idea of what their software will be? 😂

    SaaS serves a purpose that single purchase software doesn’t. There is room for both to exist.

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  • dbilitated@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    do I get updates? I own word 97, I’m not thrilled I can still use it…

    also, what is it?!

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  • sienna@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    You know… after the fiasco that literally forced them to rename the company, I’m good

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  • radau@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    My money’s on them selling PS2 demo discs

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  • FinancesDrone98@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Arr… owning stuff is the good thing.

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  • chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Ya’ll remember Windows, right? I know Microsoft catches all the shade when it comes to FOSS, but you know, it had this same model: 3.1, 95, 98, SE, 2001, XP, 8, 10… And to this day that is why you have industrial machinery run on windows 98. Buy it once. It’s yours.

    Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that anymore. Products have to work in an ecosystem now. When MS got slammed with anti-trust cases, it forced the ecosystem out into the open, for better or worse, and there is no putting that genie back in the bottle. Sure, pay for it once, own it. But that kind of payment model doesn’t congeal with our way of life anymore. Five years from now, are you gonna be able to use whatever the fuck this company is selling with whatever is just released on the market? Not if you haven’t paid the company to provide 5 years worth of updates.

    So, yeah, celebrate your nostalgic payment system and throw your money away on a product that will be obsolete before it pays for itself.

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    • BautAufWasEuchAufbaut@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It’s not like you own your Windows copy though - you are not allowed to do anything with it you want.
      You have to use free - as in freedom - software, like provided by gnu.org

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      • ck_@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        In fact, you agree by accepting the EULA that you do not, in fact, own anything and that Microsoft can revoke the right to use their software at any time.

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