The version/upgrade vs subscription model is complex. On one end you may 
have a developer that may not get enough money for his hard work and on the 
other end the user can end-up being help hostage by the software. I don't 
mind the subscription model for Spotify, Netflix etc... Because if I stop 
using that service, I don't loose much, beside the ability to listen or 
watch something. If that new hot series comes around, I get back onto the 
train and that it, I just have to start paying again and that's it. I don't 
have to spend hundreds of hours setting up things like a task manager. For 
a "life critical" software, it is different. Let me share my journey with a 
budget software (YNAB)

In August 2012 I bought a licence for $60. The software was so well written 
that in July 2022, It will be my 120th month of usage for an owning cost of 
$0.50/month. Of course that too low to have any developer live on that. If 
instead of going with the subscription model I don't remember when, they 
would have came up with upgrades, I would certainly have upgraded each year 
for let's say $40. So ownership cost : $60 + (9 x $40) = $420

I cannot come-up with a precise comparison since I don't have track of all 
the when and how much but when they started the subscription model, it was 
$6/Month so $72/Year. Just there it was a 20% price increase over the $60 
and at the end of that year your system stops working...unless you keep 
paying $72/Year which is 180% what would have been a let's say $40 upgrade 
fee (That I can buy or not). As of today, the subscription is $14.99/Month 
or $8.25/Month if paid yearly. So now, provided that this price freezes in 
time, the (10) year cost of usage would be 120 x $8.25 = $990. 

Some will remember SalesForce pricing when it started and how they can't 
really bail-out once all their business process is on there after how many 
hours of configuration.

IMO, MLO is currently not using the full upgrade potential. I bought MLO5 
(3) years ago for $60 and never was offered any upgrade, that I would most 
likely purchased, without a knife on my throat.

Michel

Le mercredi 1 juin 2022 à 16 h 42 min 34 s UTC-4, [email protected] a 
écrit :

> I personally hate the subscription model for apps and it is a huge 
> deterrent for me when selecting whether or not to use something. I feel 
> like I am already doing it with the cloud sync subsription, which makes 
> some sense because there is ongoing infrastructure costs involved, and I am 
> willing to pay for significant updates. I understand it is a more 
> remunerative model for developers, but you will definitely lose customers 
> going that way. As for the spiel about getting more updates, I personally 
> don't see a huge amount more updating with software that I'm forced to rent 
> instead of buy, and it actually seems to me if anything that the old update 
> model creates more motivation to create meaningful updates that people are 
> willing to pay for. If for financial reasons MLO went entirely 
> subscription-based, I'd probably sign up because I'm a long-time user and 
> many, many searches and trials have shown me that while almost everything 
> else looks nicer (mostly talking about Windows), there's nothing out there 
> with a comparable feature set. Just don't piss on my head and tell me it's 
> raining...subscription models are all about generating more (and more 
> steady) income.
>
> On Wednesday, June 1, 2022 at 5:40:22 AM UTC-7 daniel wrote:
>
>> As I pull my hp IpaQ out of the drawer and now try to find the power cord 
>> to see if I left MLO on it :)
>>
>> On Tue, May 31, 2022 at 3:34 PM imajeff <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Agreed; I too have used MLO since before there was a version number 
>>> (syncing with my Microsoft PDA before a smart phone was possible).
>>> Ten years later I thought the difficulty with daily usage would be 
>>> solved but now, even that was a long time ago and I struggle to maintain 
>>> tasks. It seems mostly changing what would help me could hinder some other 
>>> way someone uses it. Internally, it might require much planning plus a big 
>>> rewrite, but they don't have funding to just hire another team to develop a 
>>> whole new idea in parallel. Would be like a competition to see who wins 
>>> becoming the next release (it's what Microsoft has done, and just drop the 
>>> one that didn't win).
>>>
>>> But if they will redo it at least enough to allow some scripting 
>>> language to check and modify things triggered by events, that would be a 
>>> great start so others can help make normal usage work the way they need, 
>>> sharing the ideas. Let's make MLO great again
>>>
>>> On Tuesday, May 31, 2022 at 9:48:28 AM UTC-6 daniel wrote:
>>>
>>>> Mark, That is simply the best description of my MLO usage ever.   I 
>>>> also have been around nearly as long.  The 'exact' same thoughts: "Easy to 
>>>> plan with, Easy to keep track of everything. Hard to live with on a day to 
>>>> day basis"   OMG I'm married to MLO!
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, May 27, 2022 at 8:11 PM Mark Levison <[email protected]> 
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> @Hienz you’ve just summarized my entire MLO relationship for as long 
>>>>> as I’ve used the app. Which apparently dates back 17yrs almost to the day.
>>>>>
>>>>> Easy to plan with, Easy to keep track of everything. Hard to live with 
>>>>> on a day to day basis, which is why I eventually wind up abandoning it 
>>>>> every few years.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers
>>>>> Mark - an early user and former forum admin
>>>>>
>>>>> On Friday, 27 May 2022 at 03:06:14 UTC-4 Heinz wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I have been working with MLO for many years now.
>>>>>> My thoughts (mainly) about the desktop version.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *I love* MLO for my task planning.
>>>>>> It is a very versatile planning tool and task organizer.
>>>>>> I love the flawless synchronization across all my devices. 
>>>>>> I love the different ways of adding tasks to my inbox (task-by-email, 
>>>>>> Siri reminders, ...)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *I can live* with MLO for my todo lists.
>>>>>> I managed to set up a reasonable overview about my upcoming tasks, 
>>>>>> using workspaces, views, filters and sorting.
>>>>>> My standard view "My Day" shows technically all I need, but it is 
>>>>>> neither a nice nor a motivating user interface. 
>>>>>> A more attractive wrapping around a list of undone tasks wouldn't 
>>>>>> hurt :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *I am lost* with MLO when "Doing" things.
>>>>>> For the tasks I have to do on my computer I would wish MLO could 
>>>>>> support me more in focusing at the current task.
>>>>>> Maybe the next evolution step of the "Zoom" function?
>>>>>> My idea would be something like an always-on-top vertical task 
>>>>>> bar/window, showing 
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    - the task I am working on 
>>>>>>    - the time I have been spending on this task including an alarm  
>>>>>>    (pomodoro technique) 
>>>>>>    - a plain notes field for quickly putting down ideas, next steps 
>>>>>>    or links without diverting my focus to a separate tool.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Today I try to bridge this gap by using a desktop notes program in 
>>>>>> parallel, but I have to copy my notes back and forth to MLO.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [email protected] schrieb am Donnerstag, 26. Mai 2022 um 
>>>>>> 17:23:08 UTC+2:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The only thing that i miss in MLO is a sort of drag and drop task to 
>>>>>>> schedule them in a calendar view in the same manner of google task/ 
>>>>>>> google 
>>>>>>> calendar or Microsoft to do/Outlook calendar....
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Is very handy for week planning and instead of a list of number you 
>>>>>>> can easily visually see correlation between planned task/event and the 
>>>>>>> time 
>>>>>>> that they "fill"....
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I would like to see also a "day remaining counter" in columns....i 
>>>>>>> know is already possible to see them moving mouse over due date, but a 
>>>>>>> dedicated column would be great to see them all at a glance....
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks!!
>>>>>>> On Tuesday, 24 May 2022 at 20:54:45 UTC+2 daniel wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> THIS!!!!!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> So many times I think I must have missed the click, only to then 
>>>>>>>> find I did occurrences into the future
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Tue, May 24, 2022 at 12:49 PM imajeff <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> A relatively simple improvement is to make some visible indication 
>>>>>>>>> on the check box the moment you click to complete a recurring task.
>>>>>>>>> Many times especially when I was new at this, I would click the 
>>>>>>>>> task, see nothing happen, and click it again several times (it is 
>>>>>>>>> actually 
>>>>>>>>> normal for me to either have trouble with my mouse button, or 
>>>>>>>>> operating 
>>>>>>>>> system not responding).
>>>>>>>>> Slowly I realize that I have now completed furture occurrences 
>>>>>>>>> clear into next year but of course I was only trying to complete the 
>>>>>>>>> current one!
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Please make some kind of animation to indicate the recurrence 
>>>>>>>>> coming back, or at least show the check mark for a limited time to 
>>>>>>>>> show 
>>>>>>>>> that it acknowledged my click!  Yes I am aware that if you are 
>>>>>>>>> watching 
>>>>>>>>> someplace else on the screen and remember what the due date said then 
>>>>>>>>> you 
>>>>>>>>> would see a change to know, but obviously that will not do for this 
>>>>>>>>> feature 
>>>>>>>>> request. We were not looking over there most of the time; just make 
>>>>>>>>> the 
>>>>>>>>> actual checkbox do something.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google 
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>>>>>>>>> send an email to [email protected].
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> To view this discussion on the web visit 
>>>>>>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/54cabe83-a883-4529-821e-42917fd6c767n%40googlegroups.com
>>>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/54cabe83-a883-4529-821e-42917fd6c767n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
>>>>>>>>> .
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> -- 
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>>>> To view this discussion on the web visit 
>>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/921c86d4-1b7e-4990-ac52-78e0291106f7n%40googlegroups.com
>>>>>  
>>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/921c86d4-1b7e-4990-ac52-78e0291106f7n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
>>>>> .
>>>>>
>>>> -- 
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>> To view this discussion on the web visit 
>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/6c00375d-fa6a-4fb0-9cbd-694751fd0c53n%40googlegroups.com
>>>  
>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/6c00375d-fa6a-4fb0-9cbd-694751fd0c53n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
>>> .
>>>
>>

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