{"id":37399,"date":"2013-08-24T23:45:53","date_gmt":"2013-08-24T22:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=37399"},"modified":"2013-08-25T00:12:15","modified_gmt":"2013-08-24T23:12:15","slug":"software-licenses-going-back-to-how-it-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/software-licenses-going-back-to-how-it-started\/","title":{"rendered":"Software Goes Back to its Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Subscriptions<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"Untitled-1\"<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>I will speak slow so that those of you with PhDs in the room can understand.\u201d <\/i>\u2013 Doug Carlin, \u201cDeja Vu,\u201d<\/i> Touchstone Pictures, 2006<\/b><\/p>\n

Having been around the software industry from the earliest PC days (and before) it is interesting to see the companies come full circle and the uproar that is surrounding the latest announcements that software would be on a subscription basis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the furor comes out of a very basic misconception \u2026 that you pay once and you \u201cown\u201d the software.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that tells me that few people really read their license agreements.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t own<\/i> the software; you own the right<\/i> to use it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most IT people understand the subtle difference because they have lived in the license and service fee world since the big old mainframe days.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The approach continued through client\/server and earliest PC days.\"Untitled-2\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>Evolution, Explosion<\/strong> \u2013 <\/i>A <\/b><\/span>combination of technologies, new services and commoditization has changed the way people do business today. The cloud and virtual hardware\/software put large and small firms on an equal footing. Companies now have ready access to rich content, information. The benefits have moved rapidly to the consumer. <\/i><\/p>\n

The software industry moved from thousands of customers, to hundreds of thousands of customers to millions of customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the third computing platform hit us less than six years ago, software firms suddenly had hundreds of millions, billions of computer, tablet, smartphone customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The software licensing agreements though changed in the early \u201880s.<\/span><\/p>\n

1st<\/sup> Killer Package<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

At the time, we were working with a little company called MicroPro International.<\/span><\/p>\n

They had developed a very unique word processing application which was the first to provide mail merge and WYSIWIG (what you see is what you get) capabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trust me, it was really advanced for its time.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Denny exclaimed, “I need more cowbell!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Seymour Rubinstein, founder\/principal owner, brazenly called the package WordStar \u2013 not like it had a lot of competitors.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Untitled-3\"<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>Big Seller<\/strong> \u2013 <\/i>MicroPro\u2019s WordStar not only rose rapidly to the top of the word processing heap, it also changed the way people \u201cbought\u201d their software. And yes, those are floppies for uploading the software.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Initially, it supported Gary Kildahl\u2019s CP\/M (control program for microcomputers) and later for DOS (disk operating system) that is still the basis for PC systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the sales were to PC manufacturers (like Osborne) to bundle with their systems and everyone was happy \u2026 you called the manufacturer when you had a problem, not MicroPro.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seymour wanted the company to grow, really grow, and be used everywhere \u2026 including in the systems from the fledgling fruit company.<\/span>\"Untitled-4\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>Spreading the Word<\/strong> \u2013 <\/i>Seymour Rubinstein not only understood the early user\u2019s needs but the channels for reaching them were much narrower than they are today. And the only thing online was bad spam.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

So he had this bizarre idea of selling (licensing) the package to the end user.<\/span><\/p>\n

We all tried to convince him it was a dumb idea because you don\u2019t sell the stuff, you rent it to folks and they pay an annual fee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Break with Tradition<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cGeez Seymour, just look at what the mainframe\/midi system folks do; it\u2019s a steady cash stream. It\u2019s what pays development and support folks,\u201d <\/span><\/i>all of us said in unison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well WordStar went on to be the de facto standard for word processing, racking up $72 million in sales in \u201984. When Seymour took the company public that year, MicroPro was the world\u2019s largest software firm and he celebrated by buying a new (modest) powerboat.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And while the company sunk \u2013 his boat didn\u2019t \u2013 one-time user licensing was the accepted way for buying PC software.\"Untitled-5\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Clamored to Own \u2013 <\/i><\/b>Really smart people got their computers and bought up the available software for their systems. They signed the user agreement because let\u2019s face it, you couldn\u2019t read the mouse print and you couldn\u2019t interpret what it really said.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

You paid for it once and then expected the developer to support the product fully until the next big upgrade was introduced.<\/span><\/p>\n

That sorta\u2019, kinda\u2019 worked except service and support teams will bend your ears for hours telling you how users begged, screamed, cajoled them to \u201cjust help them this one time for the four-year-old version.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

And most of the time, they did their best to assist old-version users, even though policy clearly stated they shouldn\u2019t because believe it or not, they really like to help whoever was on the other end of the phone or computer connection.<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t really matter that your system\/OS\/applications were obsolete. It was a time when you didn\u2019t turn your stuff every few months.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>You knew they had to support you for the life of whatever.<\/span><\/p>\n

After all, you paid \u2018em and it was yours \u2026 forever!<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Costly Support<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

And, of course, every phone call costs the company money \u2026 money that could be spent on development people to work on the next version.<\/span><\/p>\n

Money that could also be invested in handling the undocumented features \u2013 you call them bugs \u2013 for everyone.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As Agent Pryzwarra emphasized, “We’ve got some unique time constraints.”<\/em><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Business IT folks like to keep their people working profitably, so they buy a ton of licenses and keep people current so everyone is working (theoretically) with the latest version.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether in a small company or a huge multinational, keeping track of the licenses and updates was a bear.<\/span><\/p>\n

IT Evolving<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

All that info was important because businesses \u2013 large and small \u2013 live\/die on software.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Keeping track of the software licenses, expiration dates and other stuff has always been a royal pain.<\/span><\/p>\n

That and the fact that IT is changing dramatically, is one of the reasons SaaS (software as a service) has grown so rapidly.\"Untitled-6\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>Virtual Software<\/strong> \u2013 <\/i>Companies quickly realized\u00a0 <\/span>that it was more efficient and more economic to subscribe or rent their software on an as-used or monthly basis, rather than deal with all the software licenses, constant upgrades (for all of the systems) and serial number tracking. It\u2019s easy to see the benefits companies can receive from using cloud-based software over packages.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It has made a significant impact on helping organizations reduce their front-end costs, balance the usage and be able to respond more rapidly.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may not have noticed but businesses are rapidly automating and virtualizing their datacenters.<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019ve reduced their datacenter floor space, power\/cooling, capital spending and operational requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may not have noticed it but the drive to be able to access anything\/anywhere and optimize the use of systems has pushed darn near everything into the cloud (translation big shared service datacenters around the globe) and that means software too!!!<\/span><\/p>\n

“Doug Carlin said with delight, “Alright. Now we’re getting somewhere.”<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Granted, there are hundreds of thousands of ultra-cheap to free apps for your smartphone, so why can\u2019t the industry for professional and business apps do the same?<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m not interested in buying virtual world products or watching someone\u2019s ad while I have a project to do.
\nUnlike my smartphone apps, hope to gawd someone out there will provide a software patch or answer my questions.
\nPay as you go, pay as you use is what\u2019s happenin\u2019 and it won\u2019t turn back.
\nIf one doesn\u2019t keep pace with new features, new capabilities you can switch.
\nAnd yes, Adobe took\/is taking a lot of heat for moving to a subscription basis \u2026 and they won\u2019t be the last.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then:<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s not like you really<\/strong><\/em> bought the product<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Someone had to reverse Seymour\u2019s decision<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Untitled-7\"<\/p>\n

As Denny explained it, “Life, like time and space, is not merely a local phenomenon.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n

G.A. \u201cAndy\u201d Marken<\/h1>\n

President<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marken Communications, Inc.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andy@markencom.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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