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New Mac App Subscription Service 'Setapp' Offers 60 Mac Apps for $9.99 Per Month
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Yes you are. If I buy your app that works on Sierra then you will support it for Sierra until new OS X version comes out, then it's up to you.
I've got Setapp and have just one app installed.. Paste. Annoyingly, it won't let you quit the Setapp app without quitting all apps that it's managing. And as soon as you launch one of its apps, the Setapp app is launched, too. Seems to take some control away from users in terms of which apps are running.
Might be an interesting offer for a some people. Not for me, since I only need a few paid third-party apps.
As a web-software developer, with my software installed across about 20 servers that I personally keep up-to-date for my various clients, I can tell you that software development is a very organic process, requiring constant attention and updates, particularly with web-connected software. $9.99 per month is a steal for the time that goes into this.
How many people drive by McDonalds and drop $15 for 20 minutes of food and sugar-water, without even thinking about it? And yet a full month of valuable software for $10 per month seems expensive? Really comes down to perspective and priorities.
Being held *hostage* to that subscription fee is another thing, though. I expect my software to keep working after I stop paying for it, and that's not always the case anymore.
I understand your point. But when was the last time a Mac OS releases lasted more than a year?
I think all Apple OS's are on a yearly upgrade cycle. Furthermore, most updates are pretty friction less for users so we are seeing 80/90% update rates for every OS release.
It makes no sense for a developer to keep a separate code base for every OS release if these OS's update yearly and 90% of your user base moves to the newer OS anyway. That is even more time consuming and buggy than just moving with the latest OS.
I get what you are saying and I have some sympathy. But from a developers point of view (especially an Indie Developer) it is really hard to fly against the current regular update situation of Operating Systems and the work incurred because of it. Also, it's actually far better for consumers and dev's to keep up to date. Bugs are fixed more regularly, vulnerabilities and security patched etc.. Its the way to go.
Sadly the world you lived in regarding software died a while ago.
I have a friend who's a developer of one very popular app and I've been helping him to test it for almost 5 years now. From my experience if the app doesn't have it's fingers in kernel extensions and things like that usually all it takes is a recompile with Xcode with new target OS and it works fine. Then you spend few hours next week fine tuning and thats it.
I don't understand this scare tactics.
Seems like a DOA idea to me. Adobe and MS can get away with the subscription model because their s/w is the backbone of businesses, schools, and graphic art professions. But all the s/w listed about is non-essessential to most computer users which is why the developers of these titles don't make bank selling it. (FWIW I'm hanging on to Office 11 and CS6 as long as they still work OK on whatever machine I own).
I'd say I wish these devs luck, but I don't. I hope this fails miserably because it's a bad model for consumers. I like to buy my s/w when I need it and either use it for as far as it will take me, or forget about it once it has served a short range purpose. I have enough subscriptions pecking at my income. Surely, I'm not alone here. If s/w is truly great it will stand on it's own. Users will look forward, and gladly pay, for the next iteration with new features. The other apps might fail. That is how the market is suppose to work.
I'd say I wish these devs luck, but I don't. I hope this fails miserably because it's a bad model for consumers. I like to buy my s/w when I need it and either use it for as far as it will take me, or forget about it once it has served a short range purpose. I have enough subscriptions pecking at my income. Surely, I'm not alone here. If s/w is truly great it will stand on it's own. Users will look forward, and gladly pay, for the next iteration with new features. The other apps might fail. That is how the market is suppose to work.
I intend to NOT subscribe to any computer apps for as long as I can. Years ago I saw this subscription model as a slippery slope. I already have to subscribe to cable TV with the downsides listed. As to forgetting about subscriptions, every 3 months when my home delivered newspaper renews my subscription, it catches me by surprise.
For these reasons, using the following as examples, I still use Office 2011 on my Mac and Office 2010 on my PC's. They do the job for me and until I can't use them, for whatever reason, I see no reason to pay subscription fees just for the newest apps, that may or may not be any better than what I have now.
For these reasons, using the following as examples, I still use Office 2011 on my Mac and Office 2010 on my PC's. They do the job for me and until I can't use them, for whatever reason, I see no reason to pay subscription fees just for the newest apps, that may or may not be any better than what I have now.
I wonder how many people who are considering the subscription are realizing the true cost of all the subscriptions they are paying for ? Are these people married, have kids, want to have a home, help pay for college, have money for retirement, etc. These are longer time dreams that requiring saving money now where possible.
Exactly. Spotify, Pandora, Netflix, Cable, Phone service, IAPs, home internet, etc. Monthly ********. Now add on this? No thanks. If I need a program, I'll fork over 20 bucks and have it for life.
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All this stuff is just as bad as this software subscription. Why do you keep justifying them?
In addition, as far as I can tell, it only allows installation of the controller app on one development device. So if you use some of those apps on a laptop, and others on a desktop, you (from what I can tell) have to subscribe twice.
I myself don't. I have been dropping all subscriptions that I don't use as much (Netflix, Amazon, music services, etc.) and switched back to a pre-pay flip phone (I now use an iPod Touch or an iPad on Wifi).
I only have home internet and phone subscription and I get Netflix prepaid card every now and then if there are good tv shows to watch. Such as Stranger Things for example.
Hell with this. What's the world coming to? It's gotten to the point where most people will go through their entire lives "renting" everything and owning nothing. And the digital plantation owners will all be living on their own private islands.
but your missing the value and just looking at the negative.
I used to pay 40-£50 on records / cd's every month now I just pay £9.99. I dont have to go to my mums garage to pick up a cd. nothing breaks, nothings scratched and I play it when ever i want, wherever I want.
If you would have asked me 20 yrs ago could I have that service for £9.99 i would have bitten your hand off!
But now we have so much we dont value anything at all. At the same time there people spending £30 on 1 vinyl album that degrades every time you play it and is easily damaged but they get all nostalgic about it. i just dont get this society anymore. Everyone complains about everything.
I think you're confused. Re-read it. I'm not justifying it. I hate software subscriptions. I don't pay for any of these.
I ripped all my discs and now I continue to listen to that music at no additional cost as in I continue to own it.
Long term rent only benefits the ones renting you things.
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But music subs are just as evil.
That's one app!
There are many more apps that do far more complicated things than your friends. Consider all the realtime audio apps out there for a start. Look at something like parallels which pisses me off no end because yeah, you buy it for one OS but I upgrade with every Mac OS so I have to upgrade anyway. So ownership means nothing, your still effectively subscribing.
But the give them credit, Parallels is pretty complex and is likely to break with OS updates. There are all sorts of apps out there. You cant just think everybodies lying to you. Even the iOS app I did a while back had to have me spending hours fixing bugs due to OS updates. It's just the way it is for some types of programs.