I get thinking that … however there is a reason it was only ever used in consumer software
Enterprise never really adopted that model even Adobe … if you had an enterprise license with them you got all the updates that cam out during your SLA as part of that agreement agian its just a subscirption
For consumers its easier to sale them a product,
So instead of saying hay buy Photoshop and subscribe to get updates
is much easier to advertise
Buy Photoshop 42 its so much better than Photoshop 41 its new
and in reality this is far far worse for the consumer
If you buy Photoshop 42 6 months before 43 comes out … well what your just screwed for the difference?
Or wait no you expect “grace period” well thats the same difference
A “Major Version” upgrade scheme is just a annualized (or whatever other frequency you choose) subscription
Only its one that by its nature always screws every user that doesn’t join in on launch day so its a FAR worse model than a true subscription
In a true subscription if you sub for 1 year and you start on July 2nd 2024 … well then on July 2nd 2025 your due up again
If you buy a Major version that comes up on Nov 1 but you purchased on Jul 2nd … your just out those 8-9 months or whatever and will have to buy the next one on Nov 1 just 3-4 months later
So no Major version was fine for consumer software as a means to simplify the marketing angle but it was never a better model for anyone … its also a lot more work to have to do all that spin up every year or 2 years or whatever frequency yoru doing so much waste goes into justifying vN+1 because you cant simply admit that hay updates and support cost and we have to monetize that so either buy another block of updates and support or don’t and you just don’t get any more updates and support thats fine to
Then you have this issue with the Major Update model that I HATED as a dev
we would have features designed, built, ready to go and be told nope hold that for the next major … but this is not only better for them it also makes our lives easier … nope marketing needs a box feature and this is it so its not going in till next major … well thats … dont care hold it
Where in a subscription system
New things come as they come, no need to wait for the marketing team to spin up vN+1 feature list no mental gymnastics to do just do your updates as they are fit for release simple as that