On Mon, 13 Jan 2014 23:15:45 +0000, Doctor John wrote:

>> Alternatively, I can pay $100, every single year, for the rest of my
>> life, to get... exactly the same thing?
>> 
>> In WHICH UNIVERSE is that better??
>> 
>> 
> Welcome to Bill Gates' vision.

I don't think that's Gates' vision.  It's the wet dream of the entire 
software industry.  Rather than selling a license that may never be 
upgraded, they want you to continue to pay "maintenance" fees so you're a 
source of continuous revenue.

"Better for whom" is the appropriate question, though - because clearly, 
subscriptions that are automatically renewed are better for the software 
companies.

I know of one company that tried to justify a big maintenance and support 
program by saying "everyone is doing it - even Microsoft" - when clearly 
Microsoft *weren't* doing it, because the premise was that you could only 
download patches and fixes if you had a current maintenance agreement, 
and Microsoft doesn't (or didn't, at the time) have such a program, 
evidenced by yours truly downloading the current SP for MS SQL Server 
without so much as a "please login" prompt.

But as usual, Microsoft is bringing up the rear on this, in actuality.  
Services like Google Apps (for business), Salesforce.com, and even AWS 
and other cloud "computing platform" providers have been doing this for 
at least a couple of years.

Jim
-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

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