Digital BW, The Print

On 11/28/2013 08:19 AM, Kip Babington wrote:
> I believe the theoretical (as in, yet to be proved in practice) benefit
> of the cloud subscription model is that an individual update can be made
> available to subscribers as soon as it is created.  Subscribers can
> decide when to download and start using it.  Under the old
> updates-on-disk model, we all had to wait for the new disk to be ready
> with (usually) a whole bunch of updated features, and that only happened
> every year or two.  I guess we shall see if the new model actually
> begins delivering updates regularly.

Downloads for software installs, instant software upgrades, happens 
everywhere. The disc arriving later or no disc version exists. 
Subscription models exist as well but in the usual contracts you are 
entitled to use the last software upgrade for as long as it goes when 
the contract ends. Qimage Ultimate is now $70 in purchase and $20 a year 
after that. The frequency of new versions to download is high, has 
always been like that for 10 years. The reaction on bug reports, the 
downside of that method, has been fast. (It has to be seen whether the 
structure of Adobe allows that too)  You can still use the last version 
of Qimage Ultimate if you end the subscription.

On the other hand my bookkeeping software uses the aging method, if I 
stop the subscription I can be sure that it will not open next year. If 
I set the system's  time a year back it will open. The money they charge 
a year is not representing the work they have to do to keep it updated, 
VAT changes are hardly a major task for them. Yet I am hooked to that 
program for several reasons and they know that. Companies that create 
administration software have a good reputation on the stock market, 
which says little about their popularity among customers. Schemes like 
this have nothing to do with modern times, they are as old as the 
written word.

-- 
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst Dinkla

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2012: 500+ inkjet media paper white spectral plots.