Do JetBrains products still work if the company would go out of business or decided to undo the perpetual license? (I haven't upgraded my license since they switched to the subscription model.) [1]
[1] It would probably be difficult contractually, but such things happen. See e.g. TextDrive hosting lifetime accounts.
Your perpetual license only works on a historical version. It doesn't work with any updates. The incentive is for them to continue building products that make you want to upgrade. The perpetual license key works in a disconnected network so it doesn't matter if JetBrains went out of business. You just need to make sure you have a local copy backed up.
Honestly that's OK, if it doesn't break my current build arbitrarily then maybe later I'll upgrade.
The Jetbrains model needs a simple, catchy name so that more companies can be inspired to choose it. Perpetual subscription?
The "JetBrains model" is how all software used to work. You... buy the software. And then maybe you get free updates until the next major release. If you buy the next major release then that's another "12 month subscription".
Re:Omni Group Layoffs
by pseudalopex on Thursday April 02, 2020 @01:55PM
(#22761649)
JetBrains calls it a perpetual fallback license.
Re:Omni Group Layoffs
by mcgrath_sh on Wednesday April 01, 2020 @10:34AM
(#22748971)
Rolling lease to own, maybe?
The JetBrains model is good because I'm able to keep using a version without paying for upgrades (but I have kept up anyway as the annual fee is so cheap for what I get).
The points you've made are why I don't typically get software that is truly 'rental only' or hits your other points. That said, I've not run in to too many in the past few years that are affected by those issues any more. Are there some in particular you're thinking of that have those problems?