What specifically do you mean when you say “Open MacOS”? Open to what? You can already install anything you want on it. It’s unix based, so your terminal works mostly the same as in Linux. You’ve even got a package manager (homebrew), so you won’t miss apt or whatever else you use. iOS is another discussion, but imho, OSX is “open” enough.

Superb write-up, well done! Echoes my experience completely.

B&H in New York has some pretty good inventory, usually. I’ve bought a lot of stuff from them through the years.

KitKat is Nestle. Fuck that, never give those cunts any of your hard earned money.

Off the seven seas? Try Britbox. Relatively affordable, no ads whatsoever. They’ve got Cats does Countdown, QI, Mock the Week etc.

Britbox has all the series since the start, when Stephen Fry was presenting.

Wish I could upvote this 10000x

VPN user voting is not allowed

WTF, why? I’m not turning off my VPN.

Very interesting. Thanks for the read!

Fair enough. I think us and everyone else on this thread can definitely agree on that last point, at the very least. 🫡

You fail to sell when you fail to timely implement desirable features. And you fail to prioritise properly when you disregard or misinterpret feedback.

None of this is better mitigated by subscription models.

This sounds almost identical to the script our former VP of PM parroted. Everyone in engineering was vehemently opposed. But the C suite loved it, so we switched to a subscription model. Guess what, NEMs and govt clients don’t like paying subscriptions. No one does, but these are huge, powerful business entities we’re talking about here. You can’t force their hand. We lost 3 of our 4 biggest clients within 6 months. It took a massive amount of work to reverse course.

Just admit it. Subscriptions are nothing more than a blatant money grab. We (the SW industry) have been successfully releasing software and making fucktonnes of money for decades before some bean counter decided to get too greedy and come up with this bullshit.

they actually need to be able to consistently make pretty sizeable upgrades

Precisely! It keeps them honest. Furthermore, it forces closing the feedback loop with users. Developers need to understand what features users want most, and what bugs or usability issues need to be prioritised. Not listening to feedback means no future revenue, simple as that.

The subscription model does none of that. It’s just a greedy money-grab.

There’s actually quite a lot of software that monetises similarly to what you’re proposing. DxO and Ableton, just off the top of my head. Millions of happy users between those 2.

You get minor version updates for “free” (included in the one-time purchase). Upgrades to the next major version are discounted. Don’t need the features in the next major version? Stick with what you have for however long it works for you.

It’s by far my favourite model because it allows the developers to get paid, whilst not squeezing my neck. Everyone’s happy.

Because they’re not cunts? Seriously though, whenever I travel to any of the Scandinavian nations, I always marvel at how well behaved the children are.

Ah, American defaultism strikes again!

Wut?

You could try https://www.lalal.ai/

Got some Cara Dillon playing while we’re decorating the tree.

I quit watching after episode 5 (I think). It’s visually arresting and Lena Heady is always great, but I found the story and characters a bit flat. Overall just… not worth my time.