Hi Dave - good to hear from you. Your point about "monthly rentals" for software got me wondering ... if someone has to move to the monthly model, I assume that includes frequent updates and "improvements"; you're using the software via the Cloud - not just from your own personal installation. But if those updates and improvements aren't carefully tested *before release* to work smoothly on all versions of the actual Operating Systems, that could screw up a lot of end users.
Think I'll go back to my pre-internet 1983 Osborne with cp/m. Back then the software was provided on stone tablets.
Tom M.
Thats not "exactly" how it works. We got forced here at the college to migrate from a paid permanent installation of Adobe to a monthly lease model (try keeping 5000 individual Adobe logins straight where before we had one serial #). The way it works is, their "creative cloud desktop" application gets installed on your local machine, and then it allows you to download and install whichever Adobe applications you have subscribed to. So you are still installing all the applications on your computer (this is true whether it is Windows or Mac). Everytime you start an Adobe application, it pings back to Adobe and checks to make sure you have permission to run that application (and you have to have a valid Adobe ID, it will periodically require you to reauthenticate with that Adobe ID credentials when you launch an Adobe application). If you havn't paid the rent, the applications will just close and not work. This is really
a bad model for people who don't have a permanent internet connection - you HAVE to have the internet to use these applications. You have a limited time where they will work without phoning home, but dragging your desktop machine down to a Starbucks every 3 weeks or so will get old fast. And you HAVE to pay online - if you don't have online payment capability you don't get to use Adobe products.
If you want to update an application (and its one you are currently paying for), that same creative cloud desktop application will download and install the update on your machine. So the software is still installed and running on your local machine - the licensing of the software is what resides in the cloud. It does have some capability to store files and preferences on the Adobe servers so if you go between several machines it can sync those. You don't always get a choice - some updates are forced. If you have limited bandwidth or a data cap, you might get slammed with a huge bill.
There are some potential advantages to all this - more so for individuals than for institutional users:
1 - You can install the software on as many computers as you want (assuming they are new enough to run it). You can only have it ACTIVE on 2 at any time, so if you want to use it on a 3rd you have to sign out of one of the others (this doesn't remove the software, so you can easily sign it back in as long as only 2 are ever signed in). It may cost less than buying 3 or 4 licenses if you are going to be the only person using it, just in different locations. They can be Windows or Mac - the license doesn't care as long as only 2 are in use.
2 - If you only need an application occasionally, you can activate it for just a month, then cancel it. If 3 months later you need it again, activate for a month and use it, then deactivate. You don't have to buy a license for every application you may ever need.
3 - You always have access to the current version - you don't have to go buy it again when a new version comes out.
In the long run it WILL cost you more - that is the goal of the whole thing afterall. People who were satisfied with the versions they had weren't buying new versions, this is Adobe's way of ensuring that no one rides for cheap on an old version. Microsoft is adopting this model for Office - expect to see other companies do likewise. Unfortunately it is geared to the people who have permanant fast unlimited-data internet and online payment capability - I guess they assume the increased revenue from the monthly model will offset the people who won't be able to buy the products because of that.