Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
I think I already mentioned in this thread that a Windows Update broke my Microsoft Office. Called them, their tech support said that I must buy the new office. No, I chose not to. When a Microsoft Windows Update breaks my Microsoft Office, I would be an idiot to financially reward Microsoft for breaking it.
I am retired, my home computer needs are pretty basic. Looked for a competitor, found WPS software, a lifetime fee for a bare bones version that was missing a lot of functionality looked pretty good when it had all of the functionality that I wanted. I am still using it, now on a Windows 11 machine. Every once in a while they update it and add a daily pop up suggesting I upgrade to the subscription version, which I ignore. Quite frankly I wish they would stop updating WPS, some of the updates meant that I could not do things exactly the way I used to. I do not think they offer the lifetime bare bones version for a single fee any more.
I wish my old Lotus 123 still ran. I liked that a lot more than Excel or the WPS equivalent to Excel.
There are open source alternatives to MS Office. You might want to look into them. These days, I only license MS Office to stay compatible with folks that I work with. Most of my writing is happening in Scrivener, Google Docs, or Joplin.
Originally Posted by
PeteHski
Did they really get greedy or just realise that $20 lifetime software is not sustainable? There are lots of legit reasons (not greed based) why software might move to a subscription model, often tiered with a free basic version. It’s for the market to decide whether or not the software is worth paying for. You are using the “greed” card to justify your own freeloading, which is pretty hypocritical.
I used the free Strava App years ago when all the premium features were still included, but it was obvious that it was not sustainable long term. Now I pay about £50 per year for the premium version, which I think is reasonable value and keeps improving year on year.
I pay for Strava too. It's pretty common practice to start out as free in order to build a user base and then move to a subscription model.
That said, when I retire, I'll be evaluating all of my subscriptions and look for open source alternatives. I'll still support the development teams either through subscription or donation or purchase, but it will likely be less than the mainstream options.