That’s a nice way of summing it up, though not a nice situation to find us (customers) in (!)
What surprises me is… we’re not asking for anything hugely unrealistic (in my opinion) or that would be a long term harm to the company.
Whether it’s performance improvements, communication during the AI issues (or at all), or honouring that a lifetime product license is a lifetime product license and that so long as the company exists, customers will have access to the products they purchased…
…the customer isn’t ridiculous in wanting these things. Some of them may take time… but we can be patient if we’re communicated with. Some of these things may cost money (e.g. hosting and maintaining a catalogue of the products we purchased), but that’s what they should have to do, when a perpetual license is one of their selling points.
My old laptop that mainly my wife uses has an old PL on it and no way could it run 9. So thay increase what’s needed to run versions and say you can’t run an old version where the current one cant
I only have three install altogether so that Im not over installs.
pl8 or newer isn’t going to run on an intel mac anyway… i had to dump my mac pro tower and go to mini mac m2-pro… but i guess they feel like they can pull the plug anytime they want… the disconnected my old optics pro 11 remotely.
I got PL9 running on macOS Sonoma on a 2019 Intel iMac.
Things run well, except for the features asking for more powerful hardware.
Check the requirements as printed in the release notes.
Being able to run the software might be different than activating it though.
But given that DxO calls licenses perpetual, I’d expect perpetual activation.
As aways: If something has been running on a Mac and a backup exists, restore the backup (of the necessary files) and things should be running again…as long as it’s the same hardware.
PhotoLab calls home at least every thirty days now if it’s not fourteen days and shuts off if it can’t reach the license server. The demand for regular contact with a license server is relatively new (PhotoLab 7 or so).
I sincerely suggest keeping a license-free version of PhotoLab around just in case DxO calls it quits or sells the company. Despite owning two licenses for a single person, while waiting three weeks for Riley to release my licenses, I’ve had to fall back on license-free copies just to be able to use the software for which I’ve paid (twice).
When it comes to software I’ve paid for a perpetual license for, I would have no qualms sailing the high seas, or finding other means of ensuring the product remains active as long as I need it to.
The thing is that “perpetual” is from the sales people. The lawyers see things differently and the EULA might reveal that provider can do what they want and the user is the looser.
Most EULA need a lot more words to say that though
You’re right, I bet they have their own lengthy wordage that says differently but… …I find it hard to care. In a world of anti-consumerism, I’d sooner do what I need to protect myself, no matter what they say.
(I’ve still paid for the product and many updates, I figure that’s enough!)
My experience is that new releases in say PL are buggy; and therefore, cause a variety of issues for various uses. DXO works on fixing the bugs, although it seems like a slow process. At some point they slow down fixing the bugs on the current version and begin working on another new version. Perpetually never reaching true excellence on much of anything (still a decent to very good product). Then when you want to re-download an older version for which you paid (for whatever reason), they resist or refuse to allow it. Not a consumer friendly business model. I still have PL5 and PL7 on my current PC, but rarely use them because I have migrated back to Lightroom Classic. I found that the subscription model in Adobe is not the terrible monster use to describe. I receive timely and good update, and beta updates many times a year. They generally work as intended. I find Adobe somewhat responsive to my request and needs. That said, I did enjoy PL and was able to use it to make some fantastic edits. If one can’t reactivate older software, then one must purchase the newer software. Perhaps not a monthly subscription, but then end result is a slower subscription model with less service and multiple irritations. Just my thought!
