samanime t1_jd2w64m wrote on March 21, 2023 at 1:29 PM

Reply to comment by shitdayinafrica in ELI5: Why does Google offer all these free services like Google Docs, Sheets, Drive, Sites, Forms, etc. without any ads on them? How does Google benefit from this and why do they invest so much in creating and maintaining them? by Elena_Edie

Yeah, and not just Microsoft. Students can usually buy* software for tens of dollars a year what pros have to pay thousands a year for (like 3D/CAD software) because companies really want students used to their software vs their competitors.

It used to be buy, but now that everything is subscription-based, they're really only leasing it.

klrjhthertjr t1_jd2ybcz wrote on March 21, 2023 at 1:45 PM

Yep, got solidworks for free in school through student design team, got pretty good at it, tried to switch to cheaper Cad software, gave up and paid solidworks 12k for software and 2k a year for maintenance.

nowake t1_jd391ri wrote on March 21, 2023 at 3:01 PM

I started working for a small manufacturing company in 2014, and the previous guy at my chair was still using AutoCAD 2000i for the shop drawings. Not to mention, Windows XP. This was good enough for what it was for, but it was time for a revamp.

I requisitioned a new PC, a pair of monitors, and a perpetual license for Autodesk's design suite 2016. I was up and running.

Then, Autodesk got in touch with me repeatedly to update and upgrade to design suite 2017, 2018, and so on... none of which would have a perpetual license, but paid monthly or yearly. I was like "Nope! No need here!"

Updated from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and it was pretty difficult to retain the perpetual subscription. Pretty soon I wasn't able to run on my PC and my laptop, which was important as I'd started working from home more often.

klrjhthertjr t1_jd3ikzt wrote on March 21, 2023 at 4:03 PM

The nice thing about solidworks is that it is a perpetual license, the Maintnence is just for yearly updates and dedicated phone and email support. I just need to keep updated because some of my clients stay of the most current version so I have to make sure my files are compatible.

LazyLich t1_jd36yff wrote on March 21, 2023 at 2:47 PM

Damn... I remember when they were first trying to implement the subscription thing and thought it'd never take off.. "It's such a scam! People are just gonna use the older version until yall give up this stupid idea!"

I still don't know how they did it..

Thank god for google docs

samanime t1_jd37d3q wrote on March 21, 2023 at 2:50 PM

A lot of people stayed on those old versions for a REALLY long time (some probably still are), but they just got too old for most so they had to cave in since it was the only real option.

Adobe isn't too bad. $60/mo for the master collection, which used to be $3k, so it is actually cheaper if you upgraded more than every 5 years.

3D/CAD software is crazy though. Some are priced as much as if you upgraded every year, or more, which nobody was doing.

brickmaster32000 t1_jd4sbtq wrote on March 21, 2023 at 8:52 PM

>I still don't know how they did it..

Sinple, they didn't make it an option. If you can't buy the older version with the perpetual license you can't use it. Within piracy the companies can quarentee that the number of people on such licenses slowly decreases down to nothing.

CriticalNovel22 t1_jd37eml wrote on March 21, 2023 at 2:50 PM

Yeah, because students become pros and spend thousands on the software they're familiar with because no one wants to relearn how to do things on new software.