LabVIEW subscription model for 2022

[AeroSoul]

We were recently sent a quote for final SSP for a year.

It was more than 300€ more than previous year, i barely got any (usable) support from them and we only recently updated to 2019 (because customers hate updating their runtime).

As the end result we let the SSP lapse and won't be renewing it, i only got the 2021 SP1 before it finally lapses.

I was wondering tho, how is it with certifications? Are they in any way tied with the SSP or not? Only the training resources right?

[alexderjuengere]

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@WavePacket wrote:

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Ok, so the next time teh SSP roles around we'll have to choose. Could we not renew to keep our existing LV license forever, and then begin a separate subscription? Thus freezing a version that we'd have forever if needed, and then we could continue to do a subscription as long as we felt it was worthwhile.

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a NI distributer told me:

- you keep your existing perpetual licence (serial number).

- if you sign up for a subscription, you'll get a new serial number, which is valid for 1, 2 or 3 years.

- you can use both serial numbers in parallel e.g. Labview 2020 and Labview 2022 are both installed and activated on your computer.

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@BertMcMahan wrote:

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I think I saw somewhere that, if you're in good standing with your SSP, they'll give you a discount on the first year (or two? three?) of the lease version. I don't know if that's contingent upon converting your existing perpetual license to a lease, or if it is for a new license.

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if you already have been on a SSP, the first time you sign up for a subscription, you'll get a one time discount.

NI will directly contact you.

I can confirm thats true.

it is also written in the faq

https://www.ni.com/de-de/landing/subscription-software.html

[crossrulz]

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@AeroSoul wrote:

I was wondering tho, how is it with certifications? Are they in any way tied with the SSP or not? Only the training resources right?

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Certifications are not linked to any license.  They are only linked to a specific person regardless of anything other than the ability to pass a test and renew.

[AeroSoul]

Considering i've been getting to the certification for the past 2 years, it seems inconvenient that i'd have to renew every 2 years 😄

[billko]

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@Tepig wrote:

Well.... in subscription model, is following style general?

When I worked as alliance partner, I needed to create purchase order at each year. It's general I think.

LabVIEW - NI

This Subscription will automatically renew at the end of its Term at then-current prices. I understand that I can cancel my subscription prior to each renewal date.

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Yes, but they didn't hold your software hostage if you didn't pay.

[WavePacket]

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@billko wrote:

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@Tepig wrote:

Well.... in subscription model, is following style general?

When I worked as alliance partner, I needed to create purchase order at each year. It's general I think.

LabVIEW - NI

This Subscription will automatically renew at the end of its Term at then-current prices. I understand that I can cancel my subscription prior to each renewal date.

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Yes, but they didn't hold your software hostage if you didn't pay.

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Knowing what's normal would be helpful to me. The options I'm aware of:

• visual studio -- what's a typical cost/year and whether they offer perpetual?
• matlab -- has a perpetual license at ~2.2k/yr or an annual at 0.8k/yr
• python -- free, but have to convince business to accept risk of using open source extensions within the business, which could be a harder sell

[Hooovahh]

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@billko wrote:

It's like ransomware, except instead of paying a one-time fee for getting everything to work again, you're paying an annual fee to keep it working.

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Or put another way, think of it as a 1 year trial, that you have to pay for.

(to be fair a trial comes with watermarks, I don't think it would entitle you to support, and I don't think application builder works on a trial)

[Kevin_Price]

I really think the comparison to ransomware hits the nail on the head.  "If you pay us, we'll grant you access to your code.  And you will keep paying for access to today's code over and over and over again in years to come."

    The idea of paying forever for the code you write today is conceptually *more* onerous than ransomware, which is a one-time hit.   The escape hatch is that unlike ransomware, the subscription model is voluntary.  No one is forced to sign on to a never-ending LabVIEW subscription.  And I suspect many dabblers and tinkerers won't.

    But companies and individuals with a lot invested in the ecosystem will probably mostly stick around.  This might even be a boon for Alliance Partners.  Commercial use of LabVIEW will move toward a narrower but possibly deeper niche that mainly involves dedicated specialists for whom the perpetual "ownership tax" can be justified.  Today's tinkerers and dabblers, heirs to the legacy of LabVIEW's *original* target market, will tend to slough off.

It's really odd to me how this comes so soon after finally releasing a free Community Edition.  The strategies seem to be just about a full 180 degrees out of alignment.  From the outside, it seems like there'd have to be warring internal factions or something.

And now, one more time for emphasis:

ONEROUS

-Kevin P

[RTSLVU]

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@Kevin_Price wrote:

It's really odd to me how this comes so soon after finally releasing a free Community Edition.  The strategies seem to be just about a full 180 degrees out of alignment. 

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LabVIEW Community Edition is "the bait" and the LabVIEW subscription model is "the trap".

[EricR]

Rolf,  apologies for stepping in here.

Your current Perpetual licenses are always going to be perpetual.  Period.

If you take advantage of the special pricing offered to existing SSP customers, you get NEW SNs that will be subscription.  You still keep your perpetual SNs.  Nothing NI (or any other company that I'm aware of) ever does will make your current perpetual SNs suddenly become subscription.

You can't sell someone a thing and then later tell them, what we sold you before is actually something else entirely.

The additional commentary about the NI licensing servers is equally wrong.  The licensing technology NI uses has always supported both perpetual and subscription products and must continue to do so.  There are a lot of Deployment and Debug licenses which are still (and always will be) perpetual because those are production systems.  Activation of those systems, both online and offline, must continue to work, essentially forever.