[GRLUG] Impact of subscription model on software development and use

[L. V. Lammert]

On Mon, 13 Jul 2009, Michael Mol wrote:

> Is it there even a future a small company (I'm talking under ten
> employees) to make money writing mass-market software to be
> distributed any more?
>
Sure - there are many vendors out there that control the entire app-chain
and make it very viable: prime example Apple & iPhone.

Realize that it *IS* the fact that they have a closed platform that makes
it possible; the rest of the market has to get their hands around the OS
model & figure out how to make it work.

> And then there's the Cloud; The only plausible approach to DRM these
> days is to control *everything* serverside, and only display a UI to
> the client.
>
Apples & Orange. DRM is one thing, SaaS is another. What you desribe is
SaaS (a la Google); the evil DRM monster is just hitting stride with
BlueRay.

> So what's going to happen to our programmers when the only way to get
> paid for it looks like it's going to be a subscription-based service?
> What's going to happen to the people who actually *contribute* to
> desktop-placed open-source?
>
They will continue to write custom applications (at least those that
haven't been shipped overseas).

> Sure, Cloud-based software is nice, but there are serious privacy
> issues that nobody has really addressed, and I know plenty of people
> who don't have the network connection to let them use modern web apps
> with regularity and reliability.  What happens to those people?
>
They go to their friendly Guru & have OpenOffice (or whatever) installed;
even though Guru's are low cost <gd&r>, we still manage to eeek out a few
bucks.

> And what happens when someone's parole conditions require them to not
> use the Internet?
>
Won't touch that one!

	Lee