Just going to leave the comment I left on there over here in case it somehow disappears:
The perpetual license model being for the STARTing version is just a disingenuous attempt at making the “problem” of dissatisfied customers go away. Honestly, it’s a pretty poor way of going about things, and for users like me who pay for our own licenses, it means the only way to feel secure about what we’re paying for is to always stay a year behind so that we don’t get the carpet jerked out from under us if we ever go off subscription. This is a terrible way to operate.
I’m going to have to think long and hard about ever paying JetBrains again; it might be time for me to look for competing tools from companies that don’t try to disguise a turd as a sandwich.
Yes, the perpetual license model is for the starting version but I don't see how that is any different than what they provide today with the "standard" license model. If you buy the application today you get to keep that version perpetually. If you don't decide to upgrade after a year you are still stuck with a 1 year old version. You can achieve this with the subscription model by just purchasing an annual subscription day one (which from what I can tell is actually cheaper than the current "full" license). At anytime you want to leave you can just do a last time annual purchase (they should just offer a buyout option) and keep that version indefinitely (and with loyalty discount that last time purchase is probably as cheap or cheaper than the current upgrade charge).
Now the problem that I do see with all this is bug fixes. I'm not sure how JetBrain's does this (I don't use them) but usually bug fixes for a particular version are freely distributed. Only new features constitute an upgrade. Now with the subscription model I don't know how they will handle this. Why maintain version specific bug fixes when you're using a rolling deployment model. This to me is a very real issue they haven't addressed.
Edit: Looks like "3rd" digit bug fixes are included in the perpetual license. From the blog:
2) will the fallback license grant me the permission to also use all subsequential minor versions, or it will be valid only for a current major+minor version released at the time of subscribing?
Maxim Shafirov says:
September 18, 2015 at 2:44 pm
2) Bugfix releases are included. More specifically, 3rd digit versions.
4 comments
4 u/coldacid [OP] 19 Sep 2015 04:01
Just going to leave the comment I left on there over here in case it somehow disappears:
2 u/onegin 21 Sep 2015 07:22
Perfect time to make the switch to
0 u/coldacid [OP] 21 Sep 2015 17:43
You're a funny man, @onegin. I'll kill you last.
0 u/Myrv 21 Sep 2015 18:15
Yes, the perpetual license model is for the starting version but I don't see how that is any different than what they provide today with the "standard" license model. If you buy the application today you get to keep that version perpetually. If you don't decide to upgrade after a year you are still stuck with a 1 year old version. You can achieve this with the subscription model by just purchasing an annual subscription day one (which from what I can tell is actually cheaper than the current "full" license). At anytime you want to leave you can just do a last time annual purchase (they should just offer a buyout option) and keep that version indefinitely (and with loyalty discount that last time purchase is probably as cheap or cheaper than the current upgrade charge).
Now the problem that I do see with all this is bug fixes. I'm not sure how JetBrain's does this (I don't use them) but usually bug fixes for a particular version are freely distributed. Only new features constitute an upgrade. Now with the subscription model I don't know how they will handle this. Why maintain version specific bug fixes when you're using a rolling deployment model. This to me is a very real issue they haven't addressed.
Edit: Looks like "3rd" digit bug fixes are included in the perpetual license. From the blog: