Ulysses, infected by a trendy virus, changes to all-Subscription model

Posted by yosemite
Aug 25, 2017 at 11:30 PM

I’ve always despised subscriptions, in just about everything. Well, I used to subscibe to (print) newspapers and magazines… gee, I wonder why I don’t anymore… and I used to subscribe to a few apps and web services (e.g. workflowy) but I’ve long since cancelled all of them.

This is just me. I do sympathize with developers, and I kinda believe that they are moving to subscriptions because they “have no choice”.. but… tough. I don’t like subscriptions and I don’t want to support something I hate.

I have nothing against folks trying to make money, quite the contrary. And certainly nothing against folks who do like subscriptions.

I’ll gladly pay, quite a bit if I like it, for a “permanent” license for software.

I think it’d be great if platforms allowed, and developers offered, lots of options. Meaning:

1. free, brief, trials.
2. cheap, extended trials.
3. discounts for upgrades.
4. lots of different rates.
5. example: $1 a day, $2/week, $5/month, $30/year,
6. always have a “permanent” tier. Maybe it’s expensive, fine.

I put the “blame” for the terrible situation where good developers can’t get justly rewarded, such as it is, firstly, on Apple. Secondly, maybe there are just too many developers. Probably because of the whole app store model. Again, Apple’s fault. :-)