

JetBrains to switch from an ownership model to a rental model for their IDE's - StevePerkins
http://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2015/09/03/introducing-jetbrains-toolbox

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pilif
I'm of two minds about this. In one way, I was updating Appcode, PhpStorm and
IntelliJ once a year anyways, so this is going to be considerably cheaper.

On the other hand, I liked the safety net that if worse comes to worst, I'll
be able to keep my existing license forever. Losing this leaves a kind of sour
taste behind.

If this was really about simplicity and not at all about profit maximization
as they claimed, then they would keep the perpetual usage rights and make the
subscriptions only required for the updates.

As it stands now, they could stop developing their products tomorrow and
people will still be forced to pay until something better comes around

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wlesieutre
Are there free non-commercial versions available? I can't rationalize a
monthly fee for something that I may not even use for months at a time, and
this sort of thing sucks for hobbyists.

On a related note, my other hobby is photography, and I just bought a copy of
Lightroom 6. It's just about the only piece of software that Adobe still
sells. At $120/year for my very light use, I won't have a copy of Photoshop
any time soon.

Maybe these prices are peanuts for someone who makes a living with them, but
subscription-only pricing moves me from hearing "You should check out
PyCharm!" to being very not interested.

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Someone1234
They also sell Photoshop Elements which is surprisingly good in my opinion. I
got it in a bundle with Premiere Elements from Amazon for $67 in a deal. If
you check Amazon price history websites (such as camel 3x) it has been that
price twice already this year.

Now if they update them beyond version 13, I do not know...

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wlesieutre
If anyone at JetBrains is reading this, consider Substance Live's model for a
way to collect subscriptions without making it shitty for customers or
potential customers.

[https://www.allegorithmic.com/products/substance-
live/monthl...](https://www.allegorithmic.com/products/substance-live/monthly-
payments)

The major software packages in architecture/design (Autodesk + Adobe) that
have gone subscription only come across as greedy money grabs, where the
incremental yearly upgrades are no longer worth paying for, so they've just
pulled out the licensing and force you to buy it anyway.

Allegorithmic's model is more fair to customers in that if new releases don't
add anything worth paying for, they're not obligated to pay for it. And it
keeps the lowered barrier to entry where anybody can pick it up for a month at
an affordable price.

Best of both worlds, IMO. Unless the plan is to squeeze people monthly without
having to make product improvements.

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walterbell
This is an interesting model. How do updates work for someone renting-to-own
(presumably receiving updates) vs. someone who purchased outright?

~~~
wlesieutre
Hm, I don't see any mention of it, but renting to own is probably the safer
bet for making sure you get upgrades.

In the event you finished renting-to-own and a major release comes out, let's
say Substance Designer 6, you get cheap one-time upgrade fees (IIRC $75 for SD
vs the $150 new purchase). Looks like they don't allow for monthly payments on
upgrades, but there's no reason JetBrains couldn't.

~~~
wlesieutre
Missed the edit window, but I should point out that the "cheap" upgrade price
there is on an Indie license. The Pro license or upgrade is a fair bit more.

But like I mentioned, if you feel like a release isn't worth it, you're free
to skip it.

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foldor
Well this is both good and bad news. I'd really like it if they kept an option
for the old pricing model available. I'm not a fan of subscribing to software
updates. I'd prefer to have the ability to keep using an older version if a
newer one changes in ways I don't like.

On the other hand, it would help for me since I tend to program in several
different languages, and purchasing a new license for every one isn't
something I really like doing.

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rodionos
We have over 10 licenses and I think they lost us as a customer with this
move. They should have tried to maintain a dual track for a few years.

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steego
Really?

You realize you can get all of their products for a little more than a dollar
a day, right? Personally, I can't think of a better way to spend my money than
to buy something that I use every day that will easily pay for itself in a
month's time.

Feel free to use this XKCD chart to figure out if it's worth the money given
your people's hourly rate: [https://xkcd.com/1205/](https://xkcd.com/1205/)

~~~
thawkins
Like cable, one channel you view, 99 crap channels you never watch.

Its only a deal if you actualy need those other tools.....

~~~
steego
It's $0.60 cents a day. It's still a deal if you only use one thing and they
offer 2 million things you absolutely know you'll never use.

I don't know what your hourly rate is, but if you were only making $10 an
hour, this tool would pay for itself if it saved you 4 minutes a day. That's
1% of your time in a normal work day for someone not even making a living
wage.

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eonw
i think this is a bad step, i would prefer to just buy my licenses outright.
My employer compensates me for such purposes, having to invoice them once a
month would be annoying. i have never really liked the idea that they upgrade
about once a year and want more of my money, so i skip every other version...
in my case, this monthly billing will cost me more money. ;(

~~~
foldor
I agree that this is a terrible idea for the typical end user. For your
specific case though I'm pretty sure you can purchase one year of service all
at once, so it would still be possible to only invoice once a year.

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rogerthis
Don't forget to add the cost of SSD and/or memory when using any Jetbrains'
IDE.

