Pesky Software Rant !

[Slowbee]

It drives me flippen mad! Almost so mad I feel like downloading a cracked pirated copy and telling the company to shove it. But this nonsense of having an annual renewal licencse fee for your software is just plain rubbish ! You dont have a choice, you have to pay or else the software stops working. And you get nothing for it, ok, maybe an update here and there, but thats it. How do these companies get away with it ! Talk about a cash cow.

 

My rant for the day !!

[Guest Omega Man]

I have to agree with you here.

 

And let me just state this. I am a consultant who makes money from a certain financial software. But every year when i ask my client for 15% of the purchase price of the software i feel really guilty. They are certainly not getting any value from the 15%

 

I mean. Since when do you buy a car and have to pay the dealer for the development of FUTURE models?

 

I'm currently evaluating an open source product called Open Taps. For me it makes sense to slowly move away from the lumbering software giants who exist purely to extort as much money from their clients as possible.

[Minion]

Not sure what software you're talking about, but it's a successful model for quite a lot of high-end engineering software (though not necessarily the stop working part).

 

With the software I now support, yearly maintenance gets you major updates (including significant new features and performance improvements) and however many hours of my (qualified engineer) time you need to fix your problems. If I can't fix the problem, you can be assisted by the international support and development team of the software itself.

 

If you don't pay maintenance, you get no updates and support, but the software will continue working.

[D-Mike]

I find this post ironic. i decided to briefly come and look what the hub has to say after my software bombed saying "an automation error occurred" the program shuts down and my work is lost. :cursing:

 

Anyway, this post has at least given me a moment to chuckle, knowing others have frustration with their software as well.

[Stretch]

if you bought it outright the annual maintenance should only entitle you to updates etc, if you dont pay, you should be able to continue using an old version that is not up to date, unless of course you are using it as a service and pay a monthly fee.

 

edit - i see edman beat me to the punch

 

 

Most of our software is slightly different, but we give it away and the client pays for our data management services as opposed to our software

Edited February 1, 2012 by Stretch

[Slowbee]

Not sure what software you're talking about, but it's a successful model for quite a lot of high-end engineering software (though not necessarily the stop working part).

 

With the software I now support, yearly maintenance gets you major updates (including significant new features and performance improvements) and however many hours of my (qualified engineer) time you need to fix your problems. If I can't fix the problem, you can be assisted by the international support and development team of the software itself.

 

If you don't pay maintenance, you get no updates and support, but the software will continue working.

i would be happy with that option. The point is I dont have an option! Pay the yearly few or else it stops working.

[Minion]

I mean. Since when do you buy a car and have to pay the dealer for the development of FUTURE models?

Again, it could depend on the software you're using, but most of the stuff I've come across, it's more like buying a car and then getting a faster, improved model with additional features every year or two. Whenever your car breaks, you get free access to a technician who will fix it.

[Tiny K]

With the software I now support, yearly maintenance gets you major updates (including significant new features and performance improvements) and however many hours of my (qualified engineer) time you need to fix your problems. If I can't fix the problem, you can be assisted by the international support and development team of the software itself.

 

If you don't pay maintenance, you get no updates and support, but the software will continue working.

 

Autocad?

[Stretch]

i would be happy with that option. The point is I dont have an option! Pay the yearly few or else it stops working.

interisting.....is it a tax package or something that relies on a new years rules etc - i.e. the software remains the same, but the rules applied are different?

[Guest Omega Man]

i would be happy with that option. The point is I dont have an option! Pay the yearly few or else it stops working.

That sucks. Are you talking about payroll software? This makes sense as the tax tables change on a yearly basis.

[Slowbee]

Call pastel.

 

I wanted their payroll system.

 

Ask them about the annual fee. Heck it is even in their T&C's. Your first year license is included in the price. After a year it stops working !

[TNT1]

This makes sense as the tax tables change on a yearly basis.

 

Now that has the clanging sound of FUD.

[Guest Omega Man]

Call pastel.

 

I wanted their payroll system.

 

Ask them about the annual fee. Heck it is even in their T&C's. Your first year license is included in the price. After a year it stops working !

Ah Well that makes sense. See every year they wait around for the budget speech and then straight away start smashing out updates for the coming financial year taking the new tax rates into account.

 

In this particular case you are actually paying for an actual developer to update the software.

[Stretch]

i see we were all on the same wavelength there................

[The expat cyclist]

Well, have you ever considdered how much goes into software development?

 

And also, thanks to piracy, I agree with having an annual fee.

[Guest Omega Man]

i see we were all on the same wavelength there................

Haha. Yes. But now to the important question of the day. Do you know if Minnaar is on Fox or Manitou?