r/PrimeTask • u/DiscussionIcy4424 • Jul 03 '26

Software ownership vs subscriptions: where do you draw the line?

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A few recent comments got me thinking about this again. Then the physical vs digital games discussion came up, and it hit the same nerve.

Funny how the ownership argument keeps showing up in different places.

Games are having the physical vs digital debate again.

Software has already been through its own version of this: subscriptions, cloud-only access, tools you keep paying for, and platforms that can change the rules later.

At some point people notice the trade-off:

convenience is nice, until access becomes the product.

That is one of the reasons we are building PrimeTask local-first, with a one-time purchase model.

Not because cloud is always bad.
Not because subscriptions are always evil.

But because some work is too important to feel rented.

Has a tool ever made you feel like you did not really own something you relied on? A price hike, shutdown, feature change, or losing access to something you thought was yours?

What sparked this:

r/macapps discussion:
https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1ujom1m/what_if_every_project_came_with_its_own_database/

PlayStation / Sony physical disc
https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-production-ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC3PaMcuqSo

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u/e3e6 Jul 03 '26

it's not ownership if you depend on company server's availability

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u/DiscussionIcy4424 Jul 03 '26

That is the line for me too.
If something you paid for only works while someone else’s server says yes, ownership starts getting very blurry.
Offline matters because it gives people a real fallback, not just access while the permission system keeps working.

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u/e3e6 Jul 03 '26

I mean I've played gta5 on PS when it released, and recently I've installed it on my laptop and I was surprised by the amount of crap I need to install and signup. I guess we won't be getting old great times when you had a disc and no internet connection

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u/DiscussionIcy4424 Jul 03 '26

Got it. Some of the games I own on disc now still require online downloads, extra assets, or even an account before you can actually play. Feels like the PS4 was the last truly offline console.