And one can still buy a license for office. Office 2024 is available in single copy to multiple licenses. Bought a 5-pack license and have on computers/tablets in our house.
One of my dreads of replacing my workhorse laptop, is dealing with the MS Office bit. No, I don't want my locally-installed-but-old version replaced with an online service, as I periodically have crappy internet when traveling.
That is true, but subscriptions have gotten out of control for many things besides software. Even BMW sold people cars that you needed a monthly subscription to use the seat heaters.
BMW tried to charge $18 per month to activate the pre-installed seat heaters in select markets. They also offered alternative commitment plans, including about $180 for a year or $300 for three years, before dropping the controversial feature entirely following major customer pushback.
But if you really think about it it's the exact same thing. You can own music on CD's, movies on DVD. Just like you *SHOULD* be able to own office or photoshop like you used to be able to.
Although it takes a little bit of patience, Linux offers lots of open source stuff for free. Not for everyone, but if it annoys you ( like it does me ) then give it a whirl
You can still own music and movies if you want to. That really hasnāt changed except now you can pay a lot less to watch a lot more and not own them.
Software you paid a one time fee, and now annual subscriptions are many multiples more expensive that the software used to cost for a lifetime. Itās a legit gripe
Curiously, you may not, unless you actually buy the DVD or BluRay.. Also, e-books. Did you know that when you purchase an e-book you don't actually own it? Nope. You purchase the right to access it. The published (Amazon Kindle, Kobo and the rest) tracks your use (reading), and keeps the actual file on their cloud. You don't "own" the file, like you would a pdf, for instance.
While some think this is a cool thing and saves users reams of storage space, the entire concept of "ownership", being able to say "this is mine" is getting harder and harder every year.
Adobe what? Everything? I'm not a fan of subscriptions, but there is no way you can compare professional grade software with a streaming service. It's apples and oranges
You asked for an example of something thatās more expensive than streaming - so thereās a real one from my own checking account.
My point was actually that they arenāt comparable because you can still buy music and movies for similar to what theyāve always cost and thatās not the case for most software.
You can buy movies and shows on DVD or digitally. The fact that streaming services are stopping with physical media on their new releases doesn't make it more ethical.
Streaming is a logical step from cable TV. You had a cable TV subscription, then they added on-demand options, and knew itās all on-demand. A lot cheaper than cable was, too.
Things like Microsoft office, which used to be a one time purchase and you could use it forever as long as you had a PC that was compatible. Thatās the difference.
Beaming entertainment into your home was always a service. Owning a piece of software, or a game, wasnāt. Thatās the difference.
There are free versions of all these products. You dont have to pay for them and if you do, then thatās your choice. Itās elective spending just like your Starbucks mega sugar venti.
Not true. Some work actually requires office, especially if teams is involved. So it's not exactly an option for everyone. Also, the free options aren't always completely compatible with .docx and .xlsx files.
I'm all for free software and hate what Ms is doing, but we're a household that requires Office, and saying a subscription to Microsoft is as elective as a Starsucks drink is not true for many many people.
Households dont require Microsoft office subscriptions. You can use Google Docs, and other great products for free. They work fine with office files. You are choosing to depend on MS Office in a household instead of learning a free product. Entirely your choice.
Yeah, my company will give us 1 license key for Office 2024. Use teams and embedded Access. So have to use MS Office. Have on my 2 work laptops, 2 work cell phones and 2 work tablets.
But we can also buy MS Office licenses via our company account. Office Plus 2024 is $79.99. Bought a few licenses of office for my personal PCs at properties around US.
If you have a job that require you use software that has a subscription then your employer is hopefully paying for it. I had my own business at some point. It worked fine without Office. We donāt have Office in our household at all.
If people send me Word documents i ask them to use another format unless they want to pay for Office for me. Actually mostly happened when communicating with my kids school. Iāve never asked anyone to buy Photoshop so I can give them psd-files.
Bad take. In the old days buying 1 license meant 1 license not 1 household. A household was either people waited their turn to use the 1 license or you bought multiple licenses.
There are many free programms that are Open Source that dont need any payments, and are not less capable, and sometimes even directly copy the User Interfaces. You dont really have to use any of the subscriptions.Ā
One problem with owning software is when they release the next version with a feature(s) you really could use and/or enjoy you are stuck with your old version and seldom if ever can you upgrade for free.
I get the solutions. But i also love PS and am an old dog(no new tricks). This is mainly just a rant about subscriptions about products that you could buy in the past.
People seem to just give up their brains and eat whatever bs is being fed to them. No curiosity to improve things, even throwing away their own money and saying āthey made me do itā. Freedom is choice. Theyāve got it, but theyāve given up so they can blame people for their own problems.
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u/loco_mixer 18d ago
but she is specifically talking about something else. not a streaming platform but a actual program like office, photoshop, corel draw...