I appreciate the subscription model, since it aligns with the fact that secure products must continue to be developed to stay secure. Security is a process, not a destination.

I used to feel very differently about this as a consumer, but when you see things from the other side as an ISV, it's obvious that a one-time fee isn't a sustainable business model - if you want the software to remain available, you need to pay for the duration.

A SaaS model works well for both sides, I think - consumers always have the latest version and their data is highly available and safe against local events (storage failure, fire, flood etc); the business has (relatively) reliay income stream.

The duration of the isv cloud contract you mean. I have ple ty of perfectly running applications where the vendor has long gone. Also, i hate paying for a relatively small feature such as a password manager. Keepass on a webdrive offers the same for free and i get to look at the source as well which in my opinion is a requirement for something zo fundamental.

> I have ple ty of perfectly running applications where the vendor has long gone

Hmm, thinking about it, for simple image editing stuff I still use a version of Paint Shop Pro from something like 10-15 years ago, and it still works great.

I think then that it depends on the kind of software, and the expectations of the user: is it beneficial to store data in the cloud for easy access from multiple devices?; do you want security updates? do you want new features?; do you want support?

I also use Keepass, with passwords stored on a cheap VPS using SFTP. Works great on Android with Keepass2Android too. But of course, this is not something a general comsumer is going to setup.

> I think then that it depends on the kind of software

I agree completely. I never want to pay more than once for Photoshop/Illustrator/etc. -- and the fact that Adobe has turned those into SaaS products really annoys me.

But products like an OS, browser, cloud-synced password manager, mail client, online git hosting, etc. -- for those, I would prefer to pay a subscription fee (to a company I trust to use it well).

well, I can attribute to anything, if there is no explanation.

When I first posted this, I had multiple down votes in the span of a few seconds with barely enough time for someone to read or even process my comments. It just seemed very suspicious.