When I payed for Purism hardware products I had to pay extra money for the transatlantic payment itself. I don’t want that for a monthly subscription to happen. I’d like these things to be clarified.
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Generally I think the regular payment is the direction to go because both subscription and it it’s payment is now an ongoing process like the software development process itself so both go along together now and this is hopefully a sustainable construction.
On the other side Purism must have planned to spend part of the income from it’s hardware products sales to go into software development.
So here is a proposal I would like to hear opinions about:
Give everyone that subscribes to the PureOS subscription for a certain period (e.g. 24 months or so) a discount coupon for Purism’s shop. The downside would be that while the income increases by the subscription it decreases by discounting product prices. So if this should work it must be well balanced.
The possible upsides would be:
- Increased hardware sales, because of the reduced price
- Increased subscriptions, because you need it to get the reduced price and get better software
- Longer subscriptions, because people that bought Purism hardware have an interest in ongoing software development
To get a picture, subscription income for 24 months would be
- $143.76 for Standard
- $239.76 for Premium
- $479.76 for Expert
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Another improvement could be a priority in the support queue for the subscribers.
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{ramble mode on}
IMO > The whole subscription thing and pushing out Crimson reminds me of DOS 1.x which is still not working right. The biggest change was renaming DOS to Command Prompt. Byzantium to Crimson?
There are, IMO, two social levels. There’s the Haves and there are the Have-nots. Grocery stores visibly cater to both with their product quality and pricing. So do software vendors.
I would not buy a stereo sound system on a subscription plan that divides product quality. Oh, you want bass with that? Subscribe to our Level 3 and if you hurry, we’ll even throw in treble at no extra cost.
BTW - This response is absolutely free for only 12 months subscription of $14.99 (based on 1 year pre-payment for a little as $179.88 )
I already paid for the phone. A lot more $ than what it’s worth when compared to other phones that do much more (not including the unfettered stalking by the other devices).
Maybe, if my $ubscription was like a loan paying back with interest - perhaps, if I felt it a good were investment.
Will I feel bad when someone reminds me that investors, subscribers, donators whatever, pay that will help make my device better? Nope. That should have been a part of the cost of the phone. But it seems that the L5 development cost wasn’t factored into the cost of the phone.
{ramble mode off}
~s
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Well, the way I look at it, the L5 already delivered to me as having the software on it to do the basics that it generally claims to be able to do. But when I subscribe to Purism for advancing development, we are inspiring people who enjoy this technology to advance it and make it have even more great capabilities. For example, if some other organizations started accepting monthly subscriptions so they would advance their own OS to run on a Librem 5, that might be fun to subscribe to as well. The software can keep evolving from anybody who contributes, because we are free to run whatever we want on this hardware.
I received my GameBoy Advance in 2001. For the past 23 years since then it has continued to operate as expected without ever receiving a software update. Sometimes, lifetime support of a device can simply mean that it was built correctly the first time, and then goes on to work fine indefinitely. It’s possible that the original Librem 5 software could have been like this, but generally software has advanced to the point where nobody can do it correctly the first time anymore. Instead, everyone is always doing something wrong. So all of the computers have to receive updates all of the time, because the only people allowed to update them are the people who are not sufficiently skillful to do everything correctly the first time.
But what if the software on your L5 might have already been done right the first time? Did Purism do anything wrong? Do we even know?
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So basically the FSF associate membership approach:
Associate Member Benefits — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software
I am fine with the idea, as long as the discount also equally applies to the Purism x SLNT collaboration products, and that there is also a lump-sum option for the store-wide discount.
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At the same time, anything that interacts with the complexity of the real world needs ongoing improvement even if it was done 100% correctly the first time.
I’m not at all talking about fixing security bugs which would indeed fall within the category of “not done correctly the first time”.
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wroted from intel arc and Gnu OS. 
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Read the ads 'Nuff said.
The Internet is full of “subscriptions”, especially software. IMO - such -stuff- is a smarmy way of doing business. Ya’all can make all the excuses ya want, but facts speak better than those - - ads - - and the pomp and circumstance I read here at times.
I didn’t just grow up with Internet on the ready. I was networking world-wide before the Internet bubbled up from the bowels of Pandora’s box. It’s what we have to live with because a younger generation was born in to it, not knowing what ‘free’ honesty is really about.
If I have to move to the back of line while others pay pay for getting Byzantium rightthen so be it. I already paid for what the ads said I would have. I am still waiting; so why would I pay a ransom to make it work as advertised?
If Puri is going to boast being as good as or similar to the duopolies then they should perform as well as the duopolies.
The L5 should work off-the-rack.
“Advanced Development” IMO, is poppycock. One can call it using all the marketeers buzzwords they want, but it doesn’t change or “advance” anything, except generate more money.
I predicted this was going to happen.
All the above is just my opinion based on what I read.
~s
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First, the subscription plan of buying in to move development ahead by paying for 20% and 5% discounts for branded swag (ads) and free software for only $400 (CAD) per 24 month plan.
and that includes priority support! WOW!
That should be criminal.
and
Standard for low income earners.
Premium for middle to upper income earners.
Expert for high income earners
The Have-Nots, the Wannabe-Haves, and the Haves.
Just because it’s allowed doesn’t make it fair or honest.
And aside that was keenly interested in the 11% interest plan. But I looked at my wall to contemplate and I could barely make out some writing…
~s
All are my opinions based on what I read here and sources are Puri forum. 
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Purism is still recovering from their financial losses from the past few years (Also see their SEC filings). Their R&D budget had been hit and they haven’t released a new product in some time. Many people only need a device once so I imagine their hardware sales is a bit stagnant, which creates a loop of needing money to invest into R&D to create new products so they can gain more money to reinvest into R&D.
Aside from the Purism announcement, the other posts have been suggestions and speculation and (for now) there isn’t any indication that subscriptions will hold PureOS “hostage” or allow subscribers to become priority support users. For what it’s worth, I don’t agree with the current proposals to incentivise subscribers such as offering discounts or offering priority support. I view the subscriptions as a way for Purism to gather recurring revenue so that they can invest that money into developers for the software they were once actively maintaining and developing. It appears that there have been many layoffs and I think Joao Fonseca was a recent one based on the Matrix channel activity. Software development isn’t cheap and I understand the need for them to gain more money for them to invest into their software stack again.
Just one of the employees that stated they were let go: https://matrix.to/#/!aXWDJNTtEfhSXdPoQT:talk.puri.sm/$17179511200DAvnT:matrix.dpin.de?via=talk.puri.sm&via=matrix.org&via=librem.one
Screenshot of the Matrix link (full text/context not shown):
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I would love to read it but I’m not, and probably won’t be using any of the apps I was shown I’d have to use to get to the next stage of registration to view any of it.
I just don’t need it to view one item.
I am not concerned about Puri past and reasons/excuses why they are/seem to be on the way out. Bad time for me to have sent my L5 for repairs. I have a strong feeling, based on the complaints in these forums, and what I have learned since I researched many reviews - I’ll never see it again.
Your post is enlightening. Had I known that before reading the ads, I wouldn’t be wasting people’s time here. I would have paid someone to de-infest and fumigate a Googie-phone.
I kick myself because I should have known better.
Their history suggests poor business sense, bad money management, in short, in dire need of a professional 1, 2, 5 and 10 year business plan.
If I were to invest in Puri, I would want to see at least the 1st and 2nd year plans. Too risky for me.
And all I wanted was what I paid for and working.
~s
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And also a loop of needing money to invest into development to improve existing products so that they sell more so that they have more money to invest into development.
Although the Librem 16 has been quasi-announced but not yet released. And then there’s this: MiMi speculation maybe?
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Also subscribed to the Expert tier. I can only hope I’m one of many 
I have to admit, it would be more rewarding if I could somehow pick a target for the money, like a specific bug or nuisance to be fixed.
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You can donate to specific developers instead if you prefer. Otherwise there is also Fund Your App, although it is no longer maintained at this point.
I can completely understand why you would say that but I think that could get complicated due to dependencies on upstream and due to interdependencies between components.
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What about non-subscribers?
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I donated to that in the past. Between Fund Your App, a donation and a donation subscription, I suppose Purism is trying to create ways for people to pick how they want to contribute that suits them best. I like the subscription model in this case, because it’s only a relatively small amount and the support is continuous. I might be willing to donate $20/month, whereas $240/year all of sudden seems like something I might want to do, but will postpone indefinitely because it seems like a lot of money 
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I heartily agree with this agenda of work!
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I think you have the wrong end of the stick but I don’t have a monopoly on predicting the future so … we’ll see.
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