[fat0wl]

Yeah but they are limiting the ways in which you can use your tools. It sounds like what you really want is just a way to persist your tools & files between OS installations & dead laptops...

Imagine having a build script that initialized all your software licenses, and that the tools all auto-upgraded in the background. Isn't that way better? I think this is kindof the GNU Tools & apt-get dream.

I'm sure the lines between software & cloudware will blur, so shouldn't the goal should just be freedom & control. Offloading tools (as the above poster mentions) is, I agree, just a scam to get you to pay... It's like paying for iTunes just to have it auto-update without asking for your permission. And if you hate the new version, sucks for you because using a new media player involves using proprietary tools to transfer your data & account, rather than just installing a new player & pointing to the same media folder.