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by adl 835 days ago
"Beginning with the Beta version of IntelliJ IDEA 2024.1, AI Assistant has been unbundled and is now available as a separate plugin."

This was a mayor complaint about a month ago:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39238666

1 comments

Man I hate their licensing system. Now I have to buy an updated license so my fallback version will be at least this new version. So I have to pay for another license to get this fix.
You have a choice between software frozen in time (perpetual fallback license) or continually updated (subscription plan)
That's exactly how the licensing works.

You get a perpetual license for the version you bought at that point in time as a fall back if you don't renew a subscription which frankly is much more than most offer.

If you're wanting a perpetual license that includes all future updates across all versions then I am afraid that doesn't exist pretty much anywhere. Fruity Loops is the only software I know that is still developed heavily and gets updates in this way.

Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve Studio, but, unlike JetBrains, neither Apple nor Blackmagic rely on software sales for most of their revenue.

Also, I can think of a few utility programs like Alfred[1] and BetterTouchTool[2] that offer lifetime upgrades at additional cost.

Finally, consumer Windows appears to have more or less adopted this model, subsidized by a steady stream of volume and OEM license sales.

[1] https://www.alfredapp.com/shop/

[2] https://folivora.ai/buy

To be honest it does feel weird that the subscription allows you to upgrade to latest yet not use it after it ends.

I personally would think that something like "You purchase a year of versions, so final one you would be able to upgrade to - would be your perpetual subscription"

I completely agree. You shouldn't have to down grade..