Pros and Cons of Subscription Software

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As you know, several major companies offer now to buy a subscription to their software products that is located in cloud servers, instead of selling a product that we can install in whole in our computer (PC, laptop, etc.)
They stopped selling standalone products, AFAIK this is the case with Adobe.
I am not happy about this at all.
I prefer to have a software installed on my PC and use it whenever I want for as long as I want.
But now I have to pay a monthly or yearly fee in order to use their products and when the subscription ends, I have nothing!!!
Two major companies I can think of are Adobe and Microsoft (Microsoft Office - will check if they still sell standalone or not).
What is your opinion about this?
 
Use free, and equally good, substitutes.

eg

Libre Office instead of Microsoft Office

Foxit pdf Reader instead of Adobe Acrobat
 
Its the software equivalent of heroin. get you hooked and then you find it difficult to break away once you are hooked.
 
Lazarus said:
Use free, and equally good, substitutes.

eg

Libre Office instead of Microsoft Office

Foxit pdf Reader instead of Adobe Acrobat
Click to expand...
I use Libre Office but I was thinking of the heavy software like Adobe Premiere Pro and the like.
What are the Pros and Cons of this change?
 
No idea as I don't use Video Editing stuff.

But, by extension to the examples above, I'd be surprised if there aren't alternatives out there that would suit your needs.
 
Another example in our household is using GIMP (Stop sniggering at the back, please!) for Photo Editing instead of Photoshop or Picasa.
 
Lazarus said:
No idea as I don't use Video Editing stuff.

But, by extension to the examples above, I'd be surprised if there aren't alternatives out there that would suit your needs.
Click to expand...
I am not looking for alternate software, only the concept behind this change from a marketing strategy.
My reaction is never buy a subscription unless I really must.
 
Thanks for the clarification.
 
A lot of companies (mine including) are moving away from licence to a subscription model. The reason for that? It makes more money!

It's generally perceived cheaper by the clients due to smaller payments but, like Ross said, it's heroin and once you're hooked, it's difficult to get out = hence more money for the company.
 
I can see one advantage is not having to pay for upgrades, because users will always have the latest versions installed.
But when I do my arithmetic how much it will cost me over several years of subscription, my body starts to shiver.
 
Lazarus said:
Use free, and equally good, substitutes.

eg

Libre Office instead of Microsoft Office

Foxit pdf Reader instead of Adobe Acrobat
Click to expand...


It would be good to know if there is any alternative to the latest incarnations of dodgy accounting software (Sage/Quickbooks etc). Neither of the ones mentioned seem to work well with when compiling end of year accounts for the UK taxman, despite the advertising claims they are fully compatible (E+OE and all that) , but as the o/p alludes, once the year is up, you don't get anything back from the software to work forward unless you pay again.
 
It's an anti-piracy thing, locally-installed programs can be hacked, key generators created and the software distributed for free, which of course means the companies money, so, they decided to not let you have the software, but just access it so long as you had paid a fee, no money, no access (basically like $ky+, you can have the stuff ready to go but completely useless if they don't allow you in!!)...
 
Lazarus said:
Another example in our household is using GIMP (Stop sniggering at the back, please!) for Photo Editing instead of Photoshop or Picasa.
Click to expand...
Some very useable free photo editing s/w: FastStone Image Viewer, IrfanView, Corel Aftershot 3 (not the Pro version!), Topaz Studio - members of our U3A Digital Photo Group use all of them.
As for MS Office: you can buy a full licence for downloaded versions of anything up to Office 2016 for £6-£20 (of which I have 2 of the Enterprise Edition!!- mine cost £5.99 each!) on Amazon or eBay - "reputedly" these come from scrapped PC's and they do work, but for how long is anyone's guess.
Not into subscription services as you might guess! :)
 
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