Dude, what the hell is the matter with you?
What is your beef with perpetual licenses?
Tell me ONE SINGLE CAD or CAM application that was not born and raised by perpetual licenseholders?
Sure, once a product matures and reaches critical mass, it is also becoming harder and harder to provide "shareholder value" ( as if that is what should make the world go round )
but that doesn't mean it all has to switch to SaaS or else death is upon it!
I do not and have never liked the idea of subscriptions in the CAD/CAM world. I like knowing that if the day comes I quit paying my annual maintenance on my perpetual license I still own my software, yeah I can't upgrade to the latest and greatest but I can still use it. There's a lot of companies using years old software no issues. I have a couple subscription based software, one is Adobe products, its $39.99 a month, $480/annually, no big deal. I was recently considering a switch to NX and the quote was $15k for 3 year subscription and at any point if I dont continue I lose all functionality of the software. That to me is a lot of money not really wasted but in a sense I feel its wasted.
Absolutely!
I'll argue the business case for subscriptions all day, but any software that requires a connection to a remote server is a dumbdumb investment. Especially right now.
Its 100% a financial business strategy, nothing else. Every software I own less CAMWorks has gone to subscription based. My issue with CAD/CAM going this way is the price point, its too damn expensive annually to never actually own the software. Subscriptions bring CAD/CAM companies more annual revenue, it forces that shop that doesn't care to upgrade to the latest and greatest to pay.
Example - QuickBooks.
I own 3 business, one being a machine shop. I have the Desktop version of QuickBooks, I do have to upgrade every 3 years due to one feature not being supported after 3 years, but QuickBooks Desktop is $299 and if you buy it at the right time you can get it 50% off. So it cost me $150-300 every 3 years to use for 3 businesses. They tried to get me to switch to their online version, which amounts to $70/month per business, $2520 annually over 3 businesses. Well I dont think they many people so now they are making the Desktop version a subscription, last I saw around $350/annually, which I can only assume will increase. They are damn near tripling their annual revenue.
On business side financially, I applaud and fully understand, great way to increase their revenue.