NOVA_Guy
Embarassed to live in a blue state
Premium
join:2002-03-05
Purcellville, VA
| reply to Nightfall
Re: Hmmm.....
said by Nightfall  :
A lot of software companies are moving to the software rental instead of buying outright. Business customers have been subject to this by IBM and Microsoft. It is only fitting that the consumer market gets hit as well.
I can think of a more appropriate, less PG-rated, way of saying "gets hit" in the above sentence... 
Didn't Microsoft announce something like this a while back with their .NET strategy? I seem to recall hearing something about upcoming versions of MS Office being streamed/run off of Microsoft's servers. I don't know if this would also include centralized document storage, but I wouldn't put that past them either.
I can see it now: businesses across America losing access to their programs and control over their documents by the minute. Forget to pay your monthly software "rental" fee? Microsoft can literally shut your business down in an instant. Or better yet-- maybe they'll just "share" that proposal you've been working on with a few of your competitors.... Puts a whole new twist to "trusted" computing, doesn't it?
I'd trust Microsoft with my business and my documents about as much as I'd trust Bill Clinton at a Miss America pageant...
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Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI
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| You can blame IBM for it actually.
IBM has been doing this kind of licensing for its AS400 mainframe software for many years now. If you don't pay, you don't get support or newer versions. Once you do pay, it is cheaper to stay in the plan then leave it and come back in. Symantec was the second to do it. Microsoft just started doing it last year.
There are advantages. You get the latest version of software. It is easy to budget out how much you will spend in a year or two years on software.
I am not saying there aren't disadvantages, but it does benefit the customer.
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