SolidSmack - Latest Comments in Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

brianmcelyea — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:08:32 -0000

Mmmmm! Pepper sauce!

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

Heinz Nachtigall — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:32:04 -0000

I am all for paying good money for a good product, but i think it's a mean gagging system :) - not every company can afford so many licences being updated or serviced. I mean if a small company has 10 licences u need 10 service licences? That's crap - there should be a package system plus service/support and licence should be sperated, one indivudually can choose how much one needs of each
And here is fine example (and I think our company is not the only one) of a company being smacked by this ridiculous idea:
We have 4 SW workplaces - quite many of our customers don't update each year - so we now need SW versions from 2005 to 2008 on almost every Workplace because SW annoyingly is not able to save in a previous version. Now consider how this new rip-off will multiply the costs!

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

Kevin Quigley — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:07:25 -0000

$1295 a year is CHEAP!! In the UK we pay £1000 a year for STANDARD, £1250 for Office Pro and £1500 for premium. It has always been the case here that if you miss the subs you are penalised.

I would gladly pay USA prices, believe me.

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

Hop — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:39:53 -0000

With the high price and ease of downloading it on bit torrent, I suspect there will be more and more people updating their seats without paying.

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

Kevin Silbert — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:15:04 -0000

"If it wasn't perceived that everyone is getting penalized for this while it's only a small minority, this wouldn't be an issue at all"...

Amen to that- I don't know what all the hoopla is about myself- If you want to stay on subscription, do so; if you don't want to, then don't... you'll never run afoul of any penalties!

I think people just like to fly off the handle with righteous indignation at the smallest issues any more- the 'net gives them a mouthpiece. But SW has the right to run their business however they want to, and users like us have the right to take it or leave it. We can make suggestions all we want, and if they make enough sense for all parties involved, maybe they'll implement them. But if they started selling SW for $500 with free subscription for life, they'd be out of business and we'd lose all our built-up investment, which would make ME an angry beaver :)

But I do like your thought about incremental discounts for staying on subscription- it incentivizes with the carrot rather than the stick. I can only imagine the nightmare it would be between Corporate and the VARs and the Users, trying to remember when things got started, etc, with multiple seats having different dates (and hence charges)... Yikes!

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

joshmings — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:47:13 -0000

Hey Kevin, I'm all for paying for good software. I'd pay for SolidWorks gladly. I disagree with the penalties as incentive for people to stay updated. I think there should be other incentives, perhaps incremental discounts on subscription service the longer you have it.

perception has a lot to do with the problem. If it wasn't perceived that everyone is getting penalized for this while it's only a small minority, this wouldn't be an issue at all. how does that sound?

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

joshmings — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:42:11 -0000

I'd actually argue that I'm not like that at all, but more of a where's-my-favorite-pen with a tinge of sarcasm kind of person. Just keeping it fun and interesting while making the points right. This pepper sauce is incredible.

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

Kevin Silbert — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:22:15 -0000

It doesn't seem too tough to me... If you need the program to run your business, it's $$$ up front and $ per year. If you can't afford it, or you just want to tinker with it, buy it once ($$$) and don't get on subscription, and count on buying a new version in 3-4 years if you need to keep up. And you won't fall afoul of any of these new fees.

SolidWorks uses these maintenance $ to develop the new releases that everybody (eventually) likes and wants to get on, but nobody wants to pay for it. Everybody wants more (features, quality, improved documentation, better support, etc), but they want to pay less... Surprise surprise!!!

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

Matt Lombard — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:11:21 -0000

"happy-positive-everything is good"

yeah, that drives me as crazy as the people who are always down. Eyore or Piglet. They're both so extreme.

I'm a "radical centrist", which is why both sides think I'm nutz.

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

joshmings — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:35:26 -0000

yep Rob, I'd agree. I could afford SolidWorks for myself right now if it
were under $1000. $600 with $300 upgrades is not unreasonable at all. I
don't think it devalues the program either. Like I've commented before, if
Adobe can do it with programs like Acrobat and Photoshop, I don't see why
SolidWorks can not do something similar. The CAD market isn't as big, and it
would probably mean, paying for other programs like PhotoView360 and
CircuitWoorks that are added to the Premium version, but really, that's
alright with me.

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

joshmings — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:31:15 -0000

yeah Matt, hopefully it will go away and there will be some options added.
It crazy to see the amount of interest this has gotten. You know me.
happy-positive-everything is good, but hope you get some more votes on this.

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

Matt Lombard — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:49:39 -0000

Ugh. Can't this topic just go away? All I did was a short post initially. I do believe this needs to change. Users need options. It's not that $1295 is bad, but if you're a company that has a lot of licenses, it's a linear multiplier for that support, and you can't pay to just support a couple licenses.

The biggest deal is that between support and upgrades, you are forced to group them together, even if you don't want/need one of them. Just choices that make sense, that's all I want.

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

Rob — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:33:00 -0000

"paying $1295/seat for a new version of SolidWorks each year" ... IS bad. It is really bad. it's a mass product for heaven's sake. Plus: get the price down and there will be much more interest in the software. Get down to $300-500 and there will be 3-4 times the users and the revenue goes up with that also.

Re: Serving Up Hot and Spicy SolidWorks Subscription Service

JeffMirisola — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:23:56 -0000

Bear in mind that your annual subscription is based on which version of SolidWorks you're using; base, Pro or Premium. I believe the premium maintenance is ~$1500/year....