3710
« Last post by superboyac on July 12, 2010, 08:14 PM »
Just today, I've pinpointed what bothers me most about cloud applications. Most of them only offer their services as a subscription based thing that is hosted on their own servers. All of these companies should, in my opinion, offer separate downloads of their applications so that users can install it on their own servers, if they chose to. If this became a trend, I would have zero problems with cloud applications. I used to think I didn't like the fact that my stuff would be all over the internet rather than my own computer, but I've realize that is not the case.
Of course, we know why they do this. It benefits the software companies, and that's it. That's the only reason why they wouldn't offer what I am saying. This way, they are in complete control. They control piracy by having basically the only copy of the software in their possession. They make the users pay monthly for the software. The users are completely at their mercy. They get to have registrations for all users, rather than just those users who want to participate in their forums or something (like with normal, locally installed software).
So many of the nice conveniences of shareware as we used to know it are gone. We can't download fully functional trials anymore. We have to register for every little thing, and you know you hate that. We hate having to commit to monthly fees instead of just a one time $30 or something. I hate coming across these cloud software these days. I just hate it. What do they expect? That I want to start paying monthly fees for every little software that I want to use? This is what is happening and I hate it.
What? Just because a software is used for collaboration doesn't mean it MUST be a subscription service. There's no reason for the old shareware model to be broken just because of Web 2.0. They are still files. We just put them on a server now. Big flippin deal.
Now, if you don't want to deal with the installation, sure, by all means pay for the monthly service. But that just means that these companies are glorified hosting companies. Is there any difference? They say you pay for the software, but you are really paying for the hosting. But I'm probably paying for real hosting for something else. Why should I pay for other hosting? Why can't I pay for hosting, and pay separately for software.
This reminds me of DSL companies and how for some reason, they have all adopted the annual contract model, and cable companies all do it with the more flexible monthly model. What's with DSL? What is so different about it that we have to commit for a year? Same with cell phones? There's no reason. It's just that one did it, they realized it's good for their revenue and they all started doing it. Nothing about it benefits the consumer.
This is the trend unfortunately. I hate it. Be prepared as cloud computing takes off...it's going to all be monthly fees. Any software that can find an excuse to charge monthly fees will eventually do it. Oh, here is our new version 12...Now you can store your data online and access this software from anywhere! Yeah! And by "can" we mean you MUST store your data online or you can't use it anymore. Oh, but you are of course free to use the old version of the standalone software for as long as you like, no problem. But the new one is now a monthly fee because we will make sure everything in the software is running smoothly. Also, you have to download a client anyway for your pc. But you can access your data from anywhere in the world.
I was recently looking for business modeling software. I was surprised that most of them were cloud applications. Like 10-1 ratio of cloud to standalone. I saw the same with collaboration software, and some other ones recently.
Anyway...who wants to join in on my rant?
Recent Posts
