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Re: Software discounts and recommendations
Yep. I hear you. I’m sympathetic to the needs of small developer teams needing to keep up an income stream more than I am to the big corps, but subscription costs start to stack up more and more. These two are both excellent but the regular price is hard to stomach for sole traders / freelancers, which is why I posted them.
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Another Mac bundle that came in an email overnight: unclutterapp.com/bundle/
Either all 13 apps at $74 or individual apps at 50%. There are some good ones among them.
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Re: Software discounts and recommendations
Not to derail his thread but subscription models don’t gel with me as a jack-of-all-trades. It’s why I switched to Affinity Vs Photoshop during a black Friday event in the last few years. I love the power such photo editing programs allow me to unleash my creativity for, say, a book cover or something. But I use them, what, maybe once every few months. No way I can justify the monthly subscription outlay.
With everything going back to thin client from the 90s (let’s face it, that’s what The Cloud is) more and more companies are using SaaS as a way to generate revenue streams, and consumers are pushed towards having to have the latest version of everything hardware to support the needs of the online apps. No longer can I run perfectly serviceable tech from a few years ago because the latest version of software I rent suddenly doesn’t support it.
Not exactly subscriber related but I got burned by this with a wireless access point company. I had two APs and they were pretty good, even though they occasionally locked up and had to be reconfigured. To do this, they were accessed by a portal on the company’s website where you could see the devices that were registered and tinker with them, update firmware, change frequency bands and channels of operation, etc.
They EOL’d the devices and six months later shut down the portal. Two perfectly usable (if occasionally flaky) bits of tech that I had to throw away and now have to rely on my single router to try and provide enough WiFi strength through foot-thick stone walls in our Victorian town house, or go buy more hardware with the same MO. Maddening that there wasn’t a way to manage the APs on my own network.
Companies laughably seem to think that the most innocuous of tasks require a subscription. I was converting a bunch of jpgs to webp last week and clicked an online service as the fastest route. Dragged the files up to be told that I could only convert two and if I wanted to do more it required a £5.99 monthly subscription. Like, yeah, I spend all day every day creating pictures and converting them to justify paying for the service that I needed as a one-off that I was doing as a favour for someone! I exported them from Affinity Photo in the end. Y’know, software that I own and can run when I like.
Anyway. </rant>
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#51 2024-11-28 14:08:40
- Algaris
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- From: England
- Registered: 2006-01-27
- Posts: 557
Re: Software discounts and recommendations
Bloke wrote #338362:
It’s why I switched to Affinity Vs Photoshop during a black Friday event in the last few years. I love the power such photo editing programs allow me to unleash my creativity for, say, a book cover or something. But I use them, what, maybe once every few months. No way I can justify the monthly subscription outlay.
It’s one of the reasons I hate subscriptions too. I have the Affinity suite and dip in and out of it every so often when I need it. If I had an Adobe subscription I’d be wasting my money. This is why I still use 1Password 6. I just want a decent password manager that syncs with iCloud and I haven’t found anything that beats 1Password yet. 1Password is now a full SaaS complete with monthly fees 😢 I also bought FL Studio during a Black Friday sale a few years back to get their lifetime license in the knowledge I’ll get free updates forever.
If a company is going to do a subscription I wish they would choose the method that Panic did for Nova. Pay full price get a year’s worth of updates. After the first year you pay a reduced fee if you want another year of updates. If you don’t pay you still can own, download, and use the last version you updated to.
As much as I dislike subscriptions I acknowledge that it’s the only way to get some software, so I subscribe to Setapp. At least I only pay one fee and get access to all the apps. Once you reach that tipping point it’s cheaper than a bunch of subscriptions (I also get an education discount for working in a school).
Anyway back on topic.
jakob wrote #338361:
Another Mac bundle that came in an email overnight: unclutterapp.com/bundle/
Either all 13 apps at $74 or individual apps at 50%. There are some good ones among them.
Oooo. I’m not interested in all the apps as I get many of them on Setapp, but Keyboard Maestro is especially interesting as I’ve been stuck on an old version for years. $18 is actually cheaper than buying an upgrade.
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Re: Software discounts and recommendations
Bloke wrote #338362:
now have to rely on my single router to try and provide enough WiFi strength through foot-thick stone walls in our Victorian town house,
I just put a few 10-dBi wifi antennas on order because our house is long and thin. Why do wifi routers come with a plethora of directionless sticks?
On software deals, I am a big fan of Gamers Supply . Super-cheap Microsoft products and other stuff.
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Re: Software discounts and recommendations
Yes, it’s an emotive topic, and there are good and bad actors in the subscription world.
As much as I dislike subscriptions I acknowledge that it’s the only way to get some software, so I subscribe to Setapp.
Interesting. I tried Setapp on a previous Black Friday offer and decided after a year that I used too few of the apps to justify continued payment. Instead I decided to purchase the 2-3 apps I really did want to continue using from the developers (some are in that bundle).
Otherwise, I will briefly say that the teams behind both Tower and Kaleidoscope have consistently improved their apps both in terms of stability and functionality, so you at least have the feeling your money is paying for continued development. BTW @Algaris, as you work in a school you may be able to use Tower for free.
1Password, too, is updated regularly and they were very open about the transition to a subscription model, softening the blow with IIRC 2 years of significant discounts. Their switch to an electron-based app got people very worked up, but it is the best, most Mac-like electron-app of its kind I have seen, and works fine with no lag on my older Intel mac. I see it a bit like txp: it’s essentially the same but also enormously improved.
I have a love/hate relationship with Adobe’s creative cloud subscription (I didn’t dare post that they have a “50% off the first year” offer on until tomorrow. Damn, now I’ve gone and blown it 😬). There are times when I use it comparatively little, and other times, as Bloke witnessed a couple of months ago, when I make such intensive use of ID, AI and PS that it easily pays for the annual cost. Typekit is genuinely nice to have, and sometimes it is also useful to be able to briefly use Premiere or After Effects without having to think about investing in another tool for short one-off projects. Again, you may be eligible for a significant educational use discount. I’ve been keeping an eye on Affinity but when I last gave it a spin Publisher didn’t adequately cover the aspects I use most in InDesign.
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#54 2024-11-29 09:21:25
- Algaris
- Member
- From: England
- Registered: 2006-01-27
- Posts: 557
Re: Software discounts and recommendations
jakob wrote #338365:
BTW @Algaris, as you work in a school you may be able to use Tower for free.
Yes I did notice that. I’ll have to give it a try.
jakob wrote #338365:
1Password, too, is updated regularly and they were very open about the transition to a subscription model, softening the blow with IIRC 2 years of significant discounts.
Yeah, I just couldn’t bring myself to sign up to their new SaaS. To me 1Password was always an app I ran on my Mac which synced with iCloud. I don’t want to sign up to another subscription and have all my data stored on their servers. Whenever I think about 1Password it’s tinged with disappointment, I know they had their reasons for switching but I miss the old model of perpetual licences and a natively coded app.
jakob wrote #338365:
Their switch to an electron-based app got people very worked up, but it is the best, most Mac-like electron-app of its kind I have seen
That would have riled me I hate Electron. Every Electron app I’ve tried feels so unmac like and clunky. Even if it is a best-of-bread app it still would have put me off. I infinitely prefer native coded apps. I get why some companies don’t do that or cant’t afford to do so though.
Maybe I’m cutting my nose off to spite my face but I’m just so sick of subscriptions and how every other company seems to be switching to them. I’d rather give my money to companies that offer perpetual/lifetime licenses or follow Panic’s pseudo subscription method for Nova. At lease with Panic’s method you get to keep something if you decide not to renew your subscription. Yes, I know I also have a Setapp subscription, it’s my one concession.
jakob wrote #338365:
I didn’t dare post that they have a “50% off the first year” offer on until tomorrow.
I know Adobe are getting a lot of hate at the moment but there’s nothing wrong with posting their 50% off deal here, somebody might find it useful. If InDesign does everything you need over Affinity Publisher and you’re happy with the software and subscription there’s no need to switch 🙂
Last edited by Algaris (2024-11-29 11:53:27)
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Re: Software discounts and recommendations
bici wrote #338301:
well worth the price. BUT if you are running Mac OS Sequoia be warned that the updates to accommodate sequoia are not yet finalized. Otherwise rock solid on Sonoma
This is at least partially resolved for Sonoma. I’ve installed the latest patch and Quick Look is working again (hurrah!), along with a few other snag fixes.
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Re: Software discounts and recommendations
Algaris wrote #338360:
The same goes for Git Tower as well 😢
As a former Tower buy-once user, I’ve switched to Nova with its ‘good enough’ Git stuff and not looked back. The Panic-ness of Nova just works, and for there really gritty Git stuff I occasionally need, I can bodge a command line session.
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Re: Software discounts and recommendations
I use ImageMagick’s convert to do image conversion.
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Re: Software discounts and recommendations
I’ve just bought the Tailwind CSS all access bundle for £219 + VAT: tailwindui.com/all-access – 30% off.
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Re: Software discounts and recommendations
jakob wrote #338365:
I’ve been keeping an eye on Affinity but when I last gave it a spin Publisher didn’t adequately cover the aspects I use most in InDesign.
I ditched InDesign two years ago. Started with Publisher V1. Now using 2.2.5. I use it 4 times a year for our newsletter. Seems able to handle all the issues I come across. and I have used it to design two books albeit they were simple in term of design. The one big drawback was that I was unable to produce an e-book from one of my book projects. Hopefully that issue will be fixed at some point.
PS just noticed the update to 2.5.6 is now available which means it should be good-to-go on Sequoia OS.
EDITED to note new update
Last edited by bici (2024-12-01 01:16:52)
…. texted postive
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