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JetBrains Reconsiders Subscription Licensing Changes

Posted by Soulskill on from the listening-to-your-community dept.

craigtp writes: On 3rd September, JetBrains, maker of IDEs and other productivity software, announced big changes to the way they sell and license their software. The changes were not well received by certain members of their user base. Within a few days, JetBrains announced that they were listening to the user feedback and that they would reconsider their changes. Today, they've finally announced their revised licensing changes, and while the subscription model remains, some important concessions have been made. Once a user pays for a year's subscription, they'll receive a perpetual fallback license, so they can keep using the software even if the subscription lapses later. They're also providing an option for offline license keys, so the software can run without needing to phone home.

51 comments

  1. tl;dr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    1. We are moving forward with subscriptions with important adjustments.

    2. You will receive a perpetual fallback license once you pay for a year up front or 12 consecutive months.

    3. You will receive up to 40% discount for continuous subscription.

    4. You will be able to use the software without an Internet connection.

    5. Current customers with active or recently expired upgrade subscription get first two years of subscription for the price of one.

    6. We still recommend you take 10 minutes to read it all for the complete details.
     

    1. Re:tl;dr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what exactly is the point of paying beyond year one?

    2. Re:tl;dr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      new versions. continued support and updates. etc.

    3. Re:tl;dr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Updates + Support, I'm guessing

    4. Re:tl;dr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For those of us that currently upgrade every two years, this is still a 50% price increase because you don't get the upgrade discount if you let your yearly subscription lapse.

      Old version $100 every two years = $50/yr.
      New version $150 every two years = $75/yr.

    5. Re:tl;dr by laie_techie · · Score: 2

      So what exactly is the point of paying beyond year one?

      With a subscription, you are entitled to newer versions of their products; the fall-back license is permission to continuously use that (possibly) outdated version indefinitely.

    6. Re:tl;dr by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Informative

      With a subscription, you are entitled to newer versions of their products; the fall-back license is permission to continuously use that (possibly) outdated version indefinitely.

      The fallback license is for the version that was current when the subscription started So if when you bought the 12 month subscription, or 12 monthly subs are up, you will get a key to use the version that was current a year ago. So if it's January 2016 and XYX was at version 1.2, and they released 1.3...1.5, then in January 2017 (if you bought monthly, or Jan 2016 if you bough annual) you will get a key to use version 1.2. If 1.3 came out in March 2016, then in March 2017, you will get a key to use 1.3 as well. If January 2017 they release 2.0, well, you get a key for that in 2018. The permanent key is valid for the version that was released 12 months prior. This way if you want to use the version released in the past 12 months, you have to keep your sub. Or just pay up for a new 12 month sub.

      That said, the changes are actually pretty decent. You still get permanent licenses, and you get long term discounts. And if they try to screw you, you're not stuck.

      Have to admit, I'm pretty impressed with the changes. Not often you get a company that not only listened to feedback, but actually implements it in a customer-friendly way.

    7. Re:tl;dr by nadass · · Score: 1

      A customer is now a referred to as a "subscriber" because JetBrains Sales/Marketing Dept wants to be hip... and this "subscriber" has the option to renew or not... and this "subscriber" has a perpetual (non-subscription) license. This is all fluff.

      In reality, it's business as usual with a single twist: an optional payment plan instead of a single up-front fee.

      PS: They want to change their Financial Revenue Recognition model in hopes of increasing their marketing metrics for customer engagement. They don't care how convoluted the story sounds when they don't just say it.

    8. Re:tl;dr by nadass · · Score: 1

      It's for their financial reporting purposes. They want to increase their revenue reporting on a monthly basis -- and subscriptions provides a clearer path of monthly usage rather than the cyclicality of perpetual license purchases.

    9. Re:tl;dr by davester666 · · Score: 1

      They pretty much had to. From the comments section of their blog, it was pretty much 80/20 that people were going to dump their products if they switched to a subscription-only license. The only people who seemed to be for it were those who found it a lot cheaper [their 'toolbox' subscription, where you can use all their ide's is a lot cheaper than licensing all their apps separately].

      I was going to dump it, but given the changes to their licensing scheme announced today, I'll probably stick with using the RubyMine ide.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    10. Re:tl;dr by Ash+Vince · · Score: 1

      They pretty much had to. From the comments section of their blog, it was pretty much 80/20 that people were going to dump their products if they switched to a subscription-only license. The only people who seemed to be for it were those who found it a lot cheaper [their 'toolbox' subscription, where you can use all their ide's is a lot cheaper than licensing all their apps separately].

      I was going to dump it, but given the changes to their licensing scheme announced today, I'll probably stick with using the RubyMine ide.

      I am not sure what RubyMine is like, but certainly for me I would have had to stick with PHPStorm regardless as there is just nothing that compares to it that I have found that runs under Linux.

      --
      I dont read /. to RTFA, I read /. to offend people in ignorance.
    11. Re:tl;dr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not quite, now your perpetual license will be outdated twelve months instead of being updated up to the moment your one year support (now "subscription") ends. So it isn't business as usual as customers got screwed over with this.

  2. How it's supposed to work by theArtificial · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While I'm not thrilled about the license changes this is great news and how things are supposed to work. That said, Jetbrains makes excellent tools and I recommend them to all of my colleagues.

    --
    Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
    1. Re:How it's supposed to work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In my case jetbrains just lost an enterprise customer because we can't take the risk of having someone decide to cut costs on licensing (subscription) in the future, unknowing that the perpetual licensed software will be 12 months outdated and might be a risk to on going projects. We might have some project managers approving subscriptions to jetbrains from time to time on a case by case basis thou, but the word was to abandon jetbrains products altogether.

  3. I wish... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They'd stop doing this subscription crap. Another company's products who I won't use because I beyond loathe paying money for something that I never own, even the 12 month perpetual license stinks.

    Oh well, at least this means competition can sprout up simply by not having shitty business models.

    1. Re:I wish... by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      Define "own".

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    2. Re:I wish... by zephvark · · Score: 1

      You paid for it, it's yours forever, unless you sell it, which you can. This is ownership. This is also slightly improbable for a software resource, which is not exactly a concrete thing that can only exist in a concrete form. Hence the weird attempts to monetize it differently, which tends to make people extremely angry, although the money has to come from somewhere. Or we wind up with things like Linux, which is nice enough but not exactly world-class... but still might be a best bet. The crap Microsoft's been up to lately doesn't bear examining.

    3. Re: I wish... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right.

      I would upgrade to the newest version of Adobe creative suite if they offered the product, but all they want to sell us is cloud.

    4. Re:I wish... by MartinG · · Score: 2

      If you own something, you can re-sell it so someone else entirely without the permission or knowledge of whoever sold it do you. If you can't do that, you don't own it.

      --
      -- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz .@adgimnoprstu
    5. Re:I wish... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To have perpetual rights to the version of the software, I paid for and to sell/destroy/use it however I see fit as I see fit without having to consult or contact anyone. Just like how I buy every other product-- you pedantic, twat. Don't confuse conflated ideas of renting that some business cunt labels as "ownership," with reality...

      What do you mean by own...

      is your brain really that twisted by modern marketing practices that you've forgotten what it means to "own" something? Or are you just being a prick?

  4. Once again, the only thing worse than eclipse... by netsavior · · Score: 0

    Eclipse is the worst. The only thing worse than eclipse is paying a license fee.

    I use Intellij at work and it is excellent, but man I can't see paying for it myself, I hate complicated licensing.

  5. PyCharm is still free... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 0

    Not sure what's the fuss is about.

    1. Re:PyCharm is still free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the hell is that? And why would anyone care? Writing Python in Vim, Emacs, Sublime, or gText is easy.

    2. Re:PyCharm is still free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not free.

    3. Re:PyCharm is still free... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 0

      I haven't noticed until today that PyCharm has a community edition (FREE!) AND a professional edition (not free).

    4. Re:PyCharm is still free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Freeware is not free software.

    5. Re:PyCharm is still free... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      I like color with my code. Besides, Notepad++ is getting long in the tooth.

    6. Re:PyCharm is still free... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 0

      If I don't have to pay money, it's FREE!

    7. Re:PyCharm is still free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, it's gratis slaveware.

    8. Re:PyCharm is still free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kate is still the best IDE, for any language. Or KDevelop, if you need more features.

    9. Re:PyCharm is still free... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      That's Linux. I typically use xfce as my window manager on Linux. Or vim if I only have the command line.

    10. Re:PyCharm is still free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is a great example of the deceit encouraged by the FSF and RMS. It's a fucking bait and switch. Drag people into arguments under the pretension of pricing, then switch to a different definition and shout GOTCHA! as if they've made a real point.

    11. Re:PyCharm is still free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WTF are you talking about? They've never made any "pretension of pricing".

    12. Re:PyCharm is still free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not the original AC. I was simply clarifying that this is gratis-ware not free software.

    13. Re:PyCharm is still free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then I guess it is a good thing the repo is on github: https://github.com/JetBrains/i...

    14. Re:PyCharm is still free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      text editor != IDE

      yes you can bling out your text editors and yes, they are great tools (I use them for various tasks myself) but when you're working on a large codebase with many other developers, the special sauce in IDEs is great.

    15. Re:PyCharm is still free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      PyCharm CE is open source, Apache 2 licenced. That's free software by any definition.

  6. Re:Once again, the only thing worse than eclipse.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So use the community edition, free and open source.

  7. Re:who the fuck is jet brains by rainmaestro · · Score: 3, Informative

    Jetbrains makes a number of popular IDEs and related dev tools. IntelliJ (Java IDE), ReSharper (VS extension for inspection/refactoring), TeamCity (CI/build tool), etc. Their tools are pretty well known in certain segments of the development industry (Java, Python, .Net), and TeamCity is quite popular as a less painful alternative to tools like Bamboo.

  8. How about reconsidering working on the performance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We have a license for all of our Java developers, but most refuse to use it because it is too slow. We even bought new desktops for all of the developers, but that still didn't help enough. We've wasted a lot of money on IntelliJ.

  9. Re:Once again, the only thing worse than eclipse.. by theArtificial · · Score: 2

    I've used an Eclipse variant called MyEclipse that solves the plugin hell. It's not the prettiest beast but it gets the job done, if you're stuck in Eclipse land it might be worth scoping out if you're disenchanted with Intellij.

    --
    Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
  10. Re:How about reconsidering working on the performa by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    In short, you didn't scope out the requirements for IntelliJ by asking the developers which tools they wanted to use, testing the performance against existing systems, and evaluating performance on a faster system. How is that JetBrain's fault?

  11. Re:Once again, the only thing worse than eclipse.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's really not complicated. Pay for a license once a year and you always have the newest stuff. Done.

  12. Sounds like good changes to me by Phoenix+Rising · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Now if only Adobe would figure this out, I'd pay them for a CC subscription. As it is, I refuse to trust my business to Adobe's online model - I want a piece of software that works after I stop paying, not hundreds of useless files that are the life of my business.

    --
    Let us live so that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry -- Mark Twain
  13. Android Studio by kbsoftware · · Score: 1

    I don't have the time right now so I'll look into it later but can't help but wonder about Android Studio. Right now I assume it will have no effect but..

  14. Re:Once again, the only thing worse than eclipse.. by vilanye · · Score: 1

    CE is gimped.

  15. Re:How about reconsidering working on the performa by davester666 · · Score: 1

    The funny thing is, now they claim they can [with this new subscription model] work more on doing things like fixing bugs and improving performance, because before, they had to spend all their time adding big new features, otherwise nobody would re-up each year.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  16. It's good for contractors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The cost is now an expense instead of a asset purchase. You can claim on it immediately instead of having to depreciate it over several years

    1. Re:It's good for contractors by sribe · · Score: 1

      The cost is now an expense instead of a asset purchase. You can claim on it immediately instead of having to depreciate it over several years...

      Uhhhmmm. Section 179 anyone? It has been acknowledged to apply to software for years now...

      (For those who don't know, expense the first $175,000 instead of depreciating...)

  17. Re: How about reconsidering working on the perform by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Intellij is highly tunable. First, do a fresh install and don't select any plugins! Also edit the VM config for JVM parameters. Must use x64 Oracle jdk. Then go back and add helpful plugins.

    First project loads need indexing and maven refreshing. After that it should fly, even on old hardware, with enough ram of course.