
Final update on the JetBrains Toolbox announcement - azurelogic
https://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2015/09/18/final-update-on-the-jetbrains-toolbox-announcement/#more-7340
======
oneJob
Earlier post on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10170089](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10170089)

430 points & 495 comments (many not very nice)

Now everyone is quiet? How about some love here. This is awesome. MS is going
with an "All your data is belonging to us" model; we all complain; nothing
changes. Out of the blue, Google shuts down another service; we all complain;
nothing changes.

JetBrains, good on you. Way more than you had to do, and did it with class.
Three cheers for JetBrains!

~~~
hatsix
Yay?!

I didn't have a problem with the way they were pricing before. It matched
nearly every other service I use, and it would have cost less (I guess
webstorm cost a whole $20 more a year!). I just assumed that all of the people
who were complaining before were the standard "Let's complain about things on
the internet" people.

Hence why they aren't showing up here to celebrate... they didn't actually
care. Every dev I know IRL that uses JB software didn't care. 90% of them have
it purchased for them by their company. I'm one of those who owns his own
license, and I still don't care.

In a place that is so startup-centric, I can't believe that there is so much
pushback against startup-like pricing.

In the other threads I'd have worried about being down-voted, but those
individuals are likely busy creating controversy in some other thread.

~~~
sangnoir
> In a place that is so startup-centric, I can't believe that there is so much
> pushback against startup-like pricing

That would only makes sense if JetBrains were a startup. No one likes startup-
like pricing for the sake of it- even on HN. Do _you_ want 'startup-like
pricing' for your car? I for one didn't like the pricing regime because it was
retrogressive and changed what I understood to be a purchase into a short-
notice rental.

~~~
hhariri
Given JetBrains has been around for 15+ years, and given that it was a change
in the model in moving to subscription, it was aimed to make the transition as
smooth as possible for existing customers and that is why they get the 2nd
year free.

------
bpodgursky
I'm glad they found a way to not buckle on the subscription model. I think
having an option to get started on intellj for $10 for a month will really
help build their customer base long term. No more $200 sticker shock.

And since I'm going to upgrade yearly either way, I don't mind it getting
cheaper...

------
LoneWolf
My only issue with their new licensing was the lack of perpetual license, now
that they added it even being 1 year behind is a good compromise if I ever
have to stop paying, but considering the discount of 40% after the 2nd year it
becomes even cheaper than the previous model (at least for intellij).

------
acomjean
I'm glad they listened, and modified.

One thing that should be heartening to Jetbrains is that people like their
products enough to really care about licensing. Its betters than having
everyone just quietly walk away to another product.

------
joesmo
With the perpetual license, this isn't really that different than the old
model for people buying one year at a time. For me, it addresses the main
issues I had with the previous plan (IDE no longer working after you stop
payment or without Internet connection), albeit with some of the most complex
license terms I've ran across.

~~~
lsaferite
I'd say it's pretty different than before. You used to buy a license and it
came with 1 year of updates and you had a perpetual license to the current
version when your updates ran out. Now you pay for a year+ of updates and then
you get a perpetual license for a year+ old version.

~~~
gurkendoktor
Having to downgrade at the end of the subscription sounds like a huge PITA. I
really want to like subscriptions, but the overhead from declaring taxes on so
many $10 invoices is annoying as well. :( I'll just wait for IDEA 15 and then
stick with my current (paid) license.

~~~
hhariri
You can purchase annual subscriptions also.

------
estefan
This is how a company should do things. Good on you JetBrains for listening
and responding.

Can't argue now :-)

------
aikah
While I don't like that model, from a business standpoint, it worked extremely
well for Adobe (someone pulled a chart the other day showing Adobe revenue
skyrocketing since the introduction of creative cloud and the subscription
model).

It's no surprise many more businesses selling desktop software might be
tempted to do this in the future.

~~~
jordigh
Whatever makes the most money is the correct thing to do. How often do we hear
something to this effect? :-(

Also, creative cloud, creative cloud, creative cloud:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaR2jR-
RpYo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaR2jR-RpYo)

------
brightball
This makes me very happy. I've been a JetBrains user since as far back as 2005
when IntelliJ was by far the best option for Java development. I've continued
on with RubyMine. Worth every single dime.

------
tetraodonpuffer
this is a very good system, now I wish Adobe did the same: it would definitely
not be feasible to give you a full license for PS+LR after a year of $10/mo
however they could easily do something like

\- every software has a 'price', your monthly subscription gives you credits,
which you can redeem for 'permanent' versions of the software you want at the
same version as when you started subscribing (so downgrade, same as here)

\- if you own a previous version of the software (say you own full CS6) then
you get a discount so that after a year of monthly subscriptions you get a
perpetual license for the version when you started the subscription (making it
the same as if you had bought a boxed upgrade)

this kind of model I think would make it a lot more palatable for people to
get onboard with SAAS as you always have the choice of keeping to pay to be
with the latest and greatest or stopping to pay and staying with a previous
version if it works for you.

The only issue I see is that there has to be really good forwards
compatibility between the versions, because if I am subscribing and am on V2
and save my project, then end the subscription and get a permanent V1, I
should be able to open my V2-saved-work without issues.

------
kentt
It's not great that when you stop paying monthly, your product reverts to
version it was 1 year ago. I feel like that's a bit underhanded.

~~~
erichmond
Your product reverts back to the version you've fully paid for via
subscription.

------
WhitneyLand
Amazing the amount effort they put into their products - even Google didn't
want to compete with them and instead built Android studio on top.

------
merb
I loved the model since as a Developer who gots a Laptop and only gets the
most necessary tools (which are paid) and IntelliJ isn't necessary cause of
other Options.

I need to buy it for my self (i own the laptop). And know I can afford
JetBrains since I can pay monthly, which I couldn't.

Thanks JetBrains, And thanks for the offline option :)

P.S.: I love this one: > If you’re paying on a monthly basis, the software
will > need to perform checks to validate the license using > JetBrains
Account. If it cannot connect to the Internet > for MORE THAN 30 days, it will
show you a message and > provide a grace time for connection.

I hope you don't make more checks and 30 days Offline is enough for me :)

------
arenaninja
Very confusing transition, but
[https://www.jetbrains.com/toolbox/](https://www.jetbrains.com/toolbox/) is
really useful to figure out what you will pay.

I think it works out in the end. For me, initial cost would be $250 for the
initial two years, $149 for the third year. So I would pay $50 more over three
years (and every year onwards) to have access to ALL their products. I think
this is a good step. I've previously been in the awkward spot where I chose
between PyCharm and PhpStorm because otherwise I'd have to pay in full for
both and didn't want the swiss knife IDE.

Thanks, Jetbrains!

------
tomku
Said it on the post about this last week, but thanks for listening. I was one
of the vocal critics of the original subscription plan, this new one is
something that I can live with.

------
afiedler
This is great. I think the option to revert to a perpetual license will be a
nice amount of market discipline for the team and keep them from stagnating.

I actually appreciate the subscription model and I hope that it will enable
them to support new frameworks more quickly. Front-end development is moving
so quickly that yearly upgrades are not fast enough. For example, JSX is just
now available in TypeScript, but WebStorm 10 doesn't support it and WebStorm
11 is still in EAP.

------
infecto
Great news for those that had an issue with the plan!

I was fine with paying the monthly fee but am happy the company listened.

------
jrs235
I think this is an excellent compromise.

------
lol768
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10239008](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10239008)

------
xiaoma
Forcing people to downgrade instead of just disabling updates sucks. It sounds
like a frustrating hassle. After their previous announcement, I switched to
Atom and I've actually been pretty happy with it.

