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You will own nothing, eat grubs, and be thankful...

~ the oligarchs

Boomer? Thats just a HUMAN complaint!

I myself also hate to pay for subscriptions and heavily favor to buy something only one time. But I also understand why something like software is sold as a subscription. If you take "normal", physical products like smartphones, cars or literally almost anything else, it is accepted that you have to buy a new one every few years (the time span obviously varies from product to product) and that repairs will also cost money, at least after the guarantee ends. But software is expected and required to be maintained, thus costing the developer money even after you bought it. Online features also lead to sever costs. Because of that, a subscription can be compared to paying for car repairs and maintenance. I think it would be fair if you bought a version of a product for a fixed price, which you could use indefinitely and then to take a small price to upgrade to newer versions.

Finding economic rents is the core of capitalism. It's so iconic even Adam Smith railed against it

FOSS users pay zero times.

Though hopefully contribute in other ways, like code improvements (not necessarily to every project:-).

Hello its HP...we have an all new printer subscription model we would like to sell you. Give us money monthly. Or better, give us money every time you use the printer!

The way it works is you pay for the printer, take it home, install the software and connect it unnecessarily to the internet where a hacker can easily hack your pii. Then we monitor your ink levels and printing count. If you use it, we charge you per page. If you're running out of ink, we'll charge you monthly and send you a new bottle. We'll monitor the room temperature and sell that information to the power company. We'll monitor for loud notices and send that to ICE and to shoe making companies so they can either deport you or sell you new shoes. Aren't printers awesome?

I wouldn't mind renting software, if only subscription-based software was such that you only paid the money for the subscription. It would be a fine way of using something for a short term, and a fine way to get some sort of guarantee that the software is maintained.

But you'll also end up paying with your data that they sell out.

There was a map app I liked better than Google Maps because you could download any map you wanted for route planning and if you wanted traffic info etc, you had to buy the app for those features. But if you had to go places without cell connectivity. you would still be able to find your way.

Anyways, I liked it so much I payed 25 bucks to buy the app. Purchasing it gave me access to everything the app could do. Then Literally 6 months later, they were bought out by another company and rebranded and didn't honor people who bought the app. Instead I would have to pay a monthly fee to use it..

I got rid of it and will never buy another app again.

The only excuse for subscription model is when there is cloud storage/sync or server provided functions that are a core part of the software.

If I didn't rely heavily on the cloud storage and syncing part of Lightroom for editing photos seamlessly on desktop, mobile, and web, then I would already have dropped Adobe for Darktable and a pirated copy of Photoshop CS2 for when I need to print.

they just need to outlaw subscription based services on services that don't need it.

And no continuous support is not a valid subscription reason, if you want to charge support separate that's fair to do but this pay 60$ a year "because it's a continuous development" needs to go away.

Same with the "pay a rent for a building", it's just money drain. Being a landlord should not be allowed to be for profit, and should be heavily regulated. If you wanna rent? Sure, but at max it should be equivalent to costs the building has, and restricted to only apartment complexes. So annoying that you can't find property anymore to actually /own/ because a handful of rental companies can just write a blank check and buy it all.

B2B SaaS