Subj : Re: Synchronet vs Mystic vs ??
To   : Abbub
From : Tracker1
Date : Tue Apr 25 2023 06:34 pm

 Ab> Software-as-a-Service needs to die in a fire for the most part. I don't
 Ab> mind it when there's a legitimate reason why you'd expect a recurring cost
 Ab> (like cloud storage, for instance), but 90% don't have a legitimate
 Ab> reason, and 50% of the remaining 10% seem to have shoehorned that reason
 Ab> in (like implementing cloud storage when it's completely unnecessary).

It's definitely abused... but there are some legit reasons to go to the rental model for software companies, even if they aren't making more money that way. 
It reduces support costs by keeping an "always current" model, so you don't
have to support many vastly different versions in the wild.  I worked at a small company in the late 90's that dealt with a lot of govt agencies and literally had dozens of versions in the wild, and the upgrades were painful and often manual to work through. With always online, always current, you don't have  to deal with those kinds of overhead.

The other thing it does is normalize revenue, in that it becomes much more predictable which can really help when budgetting costs, paying employees, etc.  When you have a recurring/upgrade model, then you may get a bunch of orders at release, but won't always know when the next surge is.  When you're paying out millions a year in payroll, having a reliable more consistent income stream makes it much easier to know where you even can land in terms of headcount and expenses.

This last point also works from the other side, as a mid-large business, it's far easier to normalize software expenses than it is to plan staged upgrade cycles or dealing with internal staff that demands/needs the new version every year and a half.

It sucks as an individual, but individuals aren't the bulk of the income for commercial software, it's generally business licensees and the subscription model tends to work better for them and the software companies.
  
   
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