Proof that software as service/cloud based, will never work for long term ...

[SilverSolder]

Once upon a time, making horseshoes was a good living.  Everything is a fad, seen from far enough away! 

[DimitriP]

These two outcomes balance out to fairly large companies I know who are deploying libreoffice and no collaboration stuff other than email.

How can you run a meeting  without video conferencing, a few digital white boards and a chat window with reaction emoticons ?
What do these people do , just talk and email each other? 
Madness!

[Karel]

"Well, this is officially it for daydream. Google has shut down most of the servers."

https://www.reddit.com/r/daydream/comments/le3wlu/goodbye_daydream/

https://www.reddit.com/r/daydream/comments/lfno5z/did_they_shut_down_the_daydream_servers/

[RoGeorge]

Out of the blue, game developer of Terraria banned from all Google services, including gmail, and noone to talk to, only unrelated automated answers.

If you're all in on the Google ecosystem, a Google account ban means you lose access to your entire email account; all the pictures you've ever taken; your cell phone service; your ability to communicate with friends and family; all your 2FA accounts; anything that uses Google OAuth; your app development business; your YouTube business and all your followers; your purchased apps, games, movies, music, and books; and all your contacts, documents, bookmarks, and notes.

Source:  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/terraria-developer-cancels-google-stadia-port-after-youtube-account-ban/

[bd139]

Google are especially a massive shit show at this sort of stuff. I refuse to deal with them.

A while ago I had the task of provisioning a GSuite account for a small business (against my recommendations). The provisioning broke and absolutely no one, even at Google's business support, could work out how to fix it. Also surprisingly it turned out that for the first 30 days after provisioning you can't use YouTube (!!!) unless you pay $30 to them as a deposit. This was interesting to work around because the form then immediately asked me to enter an amount in £. They are on Office 365 now which is absolutely 100% fine.

[CatalinaWOW]

Once upon a time, making horseshoes was a good living.  Everything is a fad, seen from far enough away! 

Fortunately for those of you making a living on cloud services and other element of this fad, making horseshoes is still a good living.  Not as many people as it once was, but a surprisingly large number of people.

[SilverSolder]

Once upon a time, making horseshoes was a good living.  Everything is a fad, seen from far enough away! 

Fortunately for those of you making a living on cloud services and other element of this fad, making horseshoes is still a good living.  Not as many people as it once was, but a surprisingly large number of people.

Sure, cloud computing has valid use cases (just like horseshoes today!).

Sooner or later, someone will launch a minimum configuration "Freedom Server" appliance that links your phones, laptops, and PCs, and so on -  runs your own email, web presence, etc. - i.e. your own private little cloud...

[thinkfat]

Once upon a time, making horseshoes was a good living.  Everything is a fad, seen from far enough away! 

Fortunately for those of you making a living on cloud services and other element of this fad, making horseshoes is still a good living.  Not as many people as it once was, but a surprisingly large number of people.

Sure, cloud computing has valid use cases (just like horseshoes today!).

Sooner or later, someone will launch a minimum configuration "Freedom Server" appliance that links your phones, laptops, and PCs, and so on -  runs your own email, web presence, etc. - i.e. your own private little cloud...

Like, nextcloud?

[SilverSolder]

I had not heard of Nextcloud, but that is kind of the direction I was thinking -  except sold as a hardware appliance that you just "plug and play". 

It isn't obvious to me if Nextcloud provide apps that run on Android and Apple to sync up smartphones?

[Edit]  Looking at the typical modern low information density web site, after nearly wearing out the bearings in my scroll wheel, I found that indeed they do provide these apps.   I'll check this out a little further, thanks for pointing it out! 

[thinkfat]

I'm running a local instance on my Nas. For now only to store stuff. Haven't yet tried any of the other cloud services.

[madires]

SmartThings starts saying goodbye to its hardware: https://staceyoniot.com/smartthings-starts-saying-goodbye-to-its-hardware/

[Karel]

Thank you for continuing to use one of our earliest Kindle devices. While you can continue reading on your device, as of August 17, 2022,
store functionality will no longer be available. This change only affects certain devices introduced 10+ years ago (listed below).
As of August 17, you'll no longer be able to browse, buy, or borrow books directly from these Kindle devices. As always, you'll be able to
browse, buy, and borrow books on other supported devices or through amazon.com/ebooks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comments/uw7p0z/store_being_disabled_on_10_year_old_devices/

[BravoV]

Thank you for continuing to use one of our earliest Kindle devices. While you can continue reading on your device, as of August 17, 2022,
store functionality will no longer be available. This change only affects certain devices introduced 10+ years ago (listed below).
As of August 17, you'll no longer be able to browse, buy, or borrow books directly from these Kindle devices. As always, you'll be able to
browse, buy, and borrow books on other supported devices or through amazon.com/ebooks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comments/uw7p0z/store_being_disabled_on_10_year_old_devices/

Well, this is new paradigm, like your books collection (imagine huge book shelf full of your valued books), suddenly gone because someone said so. 

Welcome to new econom ... eh .. world order. 

[PlainName]

Thank you for continuing to use one of our earliest Kindle devices. While you can continue reading on your device, as of August 17, 2022,
store functionality will no longer be available. This change only affects certain devices introduced 10+ years ago (listed below).
As of August 17, you'll no longer be able to browse, buy, or borrow books directly from these Kindle devices. As always, you'll be able to
browse, buy, and borrow books on other supported devices or through amazon.com/ebooks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comments/uw7p0z/store_being_disabled_on_10_year_old_devices/

If you look at the details that's not so bad. According to the link, you'll still be able to read books on it, access your library on it, access new purchased and borrowed books on it. You just won't be able to browse the store and buy books with it - you'd need to, say, use a PC browser to buy books but then they are in your library and you can read them. And for that you'll get 30% off a replacement and $40 in ebook credit. Wish I had one to take advantage

Well, not really. I wouldn't mind the sweetener but I am happy with my non-Amazon reader from which I couldn't buy a book even if I wanted to. I just use a browser on my PC and push whatever through Calibre to remove the DRM en route.

However, as EOLing goes, this is a bit of a soft landing. I think it would be counterproductive to use this as the rod to beat on the back of deliberate obsolescence.

[BravoV]

Not software though, but still relevant, and I guess one day in the future "we" will tell youngsters that in the old days, people could literally bought songs/movies physically and owned it for lifetime.


PlayStation Store will remove customers' purchased movies

Quote :
"In a move that will undoubtedly draw severe criticism, movies from Studio Canal that customers have purchased on the PlayStation Store will be completely removed next month.

The legal notice is published on PlayStation's German and Austrian websites where it reads (translated):

As of August 31, 2022, due to our evolving licensing agreements with content providers, you will no longer be able to view your previously purchased Studio Canal content and it will be removed from your video library.

    We greatly appreciate your continued support.
    
Thank you
    
PlayStation Store


In other words, customers will lose access to movies such as Apocalypse Now, Django, John Wick, La La Land, Saw and The Hunger Games that they purchased on the PlayStation Store. Not rented, but purchased."

Source -> https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1657022591

[bd139]

This is why I steal all my content.

[BravoV]

This is why I steal all my content.

In the old days, its called getting & owning your own harvest, sort of like Robin Hood thingy. 

Well, I guess you heard it too, this so called global era/movements of clear stated goal which is ... "own nothing and be happy" ...  , and reminds me of this below ... 

[bd139]

The trick is providing IT services to the king and noble classes. They like their invisible gowns.

[BravoV]

The trick is providing IT services to the king and noble classes. They like their invisible gowns.

Ah ... smart lad.     

[Marco]

What I've always wondered is what happens when the market saturates. The whole point of making everything cloud is getting a steady revenue stream which ultimately means making more money.

The point for the software creators is a steady income, the point for the users is more pain free maintenance and a better security model.

I think most commercial software will move to the subscription model and into web-apps primarily designed to be cloud hosted, with version pinning for who need it and with subscriptions for localized "cloud" server farms which can be disconnected from the internet sold separately. The advantages for both sides are too large, traditional software sales models and traditional user operating systems are antiquated.

[bd139]

The maintenance and security model of the cloud is definitely better. I've spent a lot of time over the last few years dealing with clueless clown managed service providers which is realistically the only alternative for most small to medium businesses these days.

Just today I was on a call which was a fucking shit show and a half. I can't even post it here because it was such a bad compliance issue it was reportable even though I'm a subcontractor of a 3rd party of a 3rd party 

[SiliconWizard]

I don't know if the cloud model is better really. But you sure sound annoyed. I got it that it makes good money, but maybe you should consider changing fields?

[PlainName]

The model changes from the vendor selling a product to a buyer, to the buyer paying the vendor for something that might turn up soon. Why should the vendor have a god-given revenue stream at the expense of customers? Surely, the correct thing is to produce something that someone wants to buy, and then sell it to them. Buyers are not investors, but the subscription model makes them be one. And it makes them effectively an employer as well.

[bd139]

Sometime they offer a service not a product. Why wouldn’t it be a subscription?

[PlainName]

That's exactly what it is. The only difference to hiring a programmer to write an application for you is that you don't get to tell them what to make. Personally, I don't want to hire anyone; I want a product that works and that's it. If there is an update or better version I can choose then whether I want to buy that too or not.

A real service, such as providing cloud facilities, is OK, but a product? Its worse that that: not only do you not get a say in what the product does, it will change from under your feet as the whim takes the developer. They don't give a stuff because they've already got your money, and they don't have to worry about making something someone wants in order to have a decent lifestyle (unless they really screw up for a lengthy period). They haven't, and won't invest in their own company but get the customer to do that.