I've read a lot of complains about this new model, some real concerns,
and some lesser real to the plain grumpy ones. I suggest we list up the
real concerns here, and I will start with mine.
First, an plausible explanation why changes are frustrating for the
users. All the users already writing their frustration have all spent
and will continue spending their time on this issue. If there was no
change in licensing, this time would have been used for something
productive. This causes some frustration. The users who don't care can
save this time, but the ones having real concerns should be listened to
when they spend their time on it.
My own biggest concern has already started; Unneccesary mental
involvement (or lost time if you like). This is something I have started
to protect myself against, seeing flood waves of "social" media wanting
my attention. Supscription model requires my (and matbe my teams) time
and us to think about alot of whatif scenarios. This is uncomfortable
because there is no answer. What I do know is that if something goes
wrong, my data may (in extreme worst case) end up close to worthless.
The reason why I added "close to" is that the data is xml format, and
does make some sense, at lest for me with a lot of understanding about
eagle structures. This comforts me.
Some of my whatifs are:
-Will autodesk be able to serve all the eagle online versions after
aquistions/new management and/or company policies? I think we will be
forced to use latest version, but it doesnt take much to imagine retro
issues in 10-20 years. All online tools will have retro issues by nature.
-How much money will my project cost and what subscription model fits me
best? This is impossible to answer. The projects I work with may be
intense layout in 6-24 months, then there is mostly idling for years
until we need to make a new product.So I, and maybe my team have to
spend some time trying to get a forecast. Not just that, but if we go
for 6 months subscription, we have to spend time on doing a new aval
before the next layout wave! This is wasted time compare to the other
model, so we will maybe end up (after wasting that time) throwing our
money at continuous subscription to avoid spending even more time trying
to find a "good" answer.
The comfort of only needing to trust myself keeping binaries(inc keys),
not having to worry or make purchase decisions until you are confident
new features will ease your job, is very pleasant to a busy mind, and
even worth paying premium for.
