_:nd6135467a39a4e2a88aef2033e7b65e8xb87
<http://schema.org/text>
"<p>What really concerns me is the notion of retrospective changes, whether I like it or not. I mean, if the entire control interface is via app, and that app relies on their (profile) database in the back end, they can withdraw the app’s access any time they like, including if, for example, you don’t upgrade the app to their latest ‘supported’ version. And that app could remove facilities that include the reason I bought that hardware in the first place.</p> \n\n<p>I think you’re right when you said earlier it’s an age thing. That, and an experience thing. I feel rather like ‘been there, done that, got the battle scars’, not least with MS Windows, though the most overt example was Adobe going subscription-only for most of their product range … like Photoshop and Premiere.</p> \n\n<p>I have no reason to expect that they <em>will</em> do this sort of thing, but that experience tells me that most companies tend to do what suits them, not what they feel is fair to users. What bothers me Is that they <em>can</em> do it, at all. It boils down to “Do I trust them?” No. How can I? I don’t know them.</p> \n\n<p>What if, for instance, they decide in a year or two that even using the roaster at all is suddenly a subscription service?</p>\n\n<p>In the past, with computer hardware, yeah you still had to rely on drivers but I was cautious enough to always download copies of drivers I was using, so in the event I had to re-install, I didn’t even have to rely on still being downloadable, or even the company still existing.  I might never get new, updated or even bug-fixed software or drivers, but at least they couldn’t remove the functionality the hardware functionality it had when I bought it.  If it would do a job when I bought it, it could be guaranteed to continue doing it until the hardware itself died.</p> \n\n<p>But not with this model. The manufacturers can not only not improve stuff, they can even lock you out of it, if they so choose, or hold you to ransom. Which is why I switched away from Adobe stuff to completely different software, at considerable inconvenience, when they did that, after about 20 years of usage, rather than pay to ‘upgrade’ to a subscription-only system.</p>  "
<https://coffeetime.freeflarum.com/d/34-behmor-roaster/1>