I must say that I’m horrified. I’ve seen what has happened to Adobe customers. They said that the subscription model would help to finance development in their programs but the opposite is true. Their customers are now tied to using their products and have to keep on paying, while Adobe haven’t really developed their products much at all because they know we have to go on paying them.
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Actually here you can still use the product even if you stop paying. So it is not directly like Adobe.
That’s precisely why I am going to hold on to the non-subscription model, until the last non-subscription app is dead and gone.
Like I wrote it’s a maintenance model, but crooked. If they charge and cash in and then do nothing, except releasing updates that are merely correcting typos, then you’ve been fooled.
Hi Peter,
You may be horrified by RealMac’s amateur attempt at creating a regular income stream but I completely disagree with your comparison with Adobe’s Creative Cloud model.
Since Adobe started their subs scheme, they have massively invested in support, training and user interaction. Their products are updated frequently - fixes, enhancements and additions - and they are developing great mobile versions of their desktop apps.
I pay £50 per month for Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign, Acrobat Pro, Audition, Media Encoder - all of which I use on a regular basis. There are others like XD, Animate and Dimension that I’d like to learn if/when I have time. (I could also use Premier Pro and After Effects in my subscription but I’m a Final Cut Pro and Motion guy.)
These creative tools are incredible value for money and a mere bagatelle in any vaguely successful design enterprise.
But back to RealMac. Let’s be honest, it is a one-man-band trying to create the basis for reliable income after years of desperate discounting to generate users - and one failed attempt to sell the business. Can’t fault him for that.
(However, just how he arrived at his current business model, god only knows - it’s quite bizarre. But that’s a whole other topic.)
🤪
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I’m still not sure what the model is at the moment. The FAQ seems to contradict itself.
To me, this says… Yes, RWC is subscription. If you cancel your sub before the expiration date of the current sub period you can still use RWC, but after that, you will need to renew. The wording is a bit ambigious, but to me, this is what it’s saying. The “you can continue to use even after you cancel” only relates to the existing sub period. Not beyond. But I agree it might say you can continue after your sub exipires, but won’t get updates. As I say, it’s really not clear, especially when you factor in on-the-fly translations. This I feel needs clearing up.
Then you have this…
This clearly seems to state what you are saying, and what was the original purchasing model for RWC at launch. Which is you can continue to use beyond the one year sub, but without updates.
However, that goes against what Dan said in the post where I asked what the pricing model was. So really, for me at least, I’m not entirely sure what is going on!
I’ll fire them a message for clarification and report back.
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Maybe Marty McFly can tell us how things are in one years time 😄
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Unfortunately, I cannot afford the full CC subscription any longer but I’ve been using InDesign since it was in beta and since Adobe went over to the subscription model, the improvements in InDesign have been glacially slow. They give it a new number every six months but seldom introduce any improvements, just the odd gimmick. It takes them years even to fix bugs. They have never introduced proper XML support, presumably to protect sales of FrameMaker. I’ve lost track of how many years it took them to introduce endnotes and for years I had to use a plug-in from Virginia Systems to fill the gap, Now I have a load of old InDesign files which I can’t update without converting all the old endnotes to InDesign ones.
OKey dokey, from the horses mouth, so to speak…
If you purchased RapidWeaver Classic after June 28th 2022 you are on a subscription license (this auto renews): Subscription FAQ: RapidWeaver FAQ - RapidWeaver Classic Manual
If you purchased RapidWeaver Classic between June 28th 2022, and July 22nd 2022 you are on a renewal style license (this does not auto-renew): Renewals FAQ: RapidWeaver FAQ - RapidWeaver Classic Manual
This is the pertinent FAQ for people on the renewal licence: RapidWeaver FAQ - RapidWeaver Classic Manual
To round it all out, if you are already licenced for RWC you need to check the dates to see which model you are on: Sub or renewal. If you haven’t yet purchased RWC you will be buying into the subscription model.
As the person who started this thread I kinda felt it my duty to clear up any confusion here, in this forum. But other than that, I’m not getting drawn in further. I get that the new payment models don’t work for some, that’s their call. I’m not getting into that, just wanted to clear up any confusion my initial post might have created.
If peeps need to know more or vent, maybe email them direct at support@realmacsoftware.com or start another thread or summit.
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