Service-as-a-Software-Substitute (SaaSS) is a judgemental term coined by the FSF to indicate there is no technological reason for some software to be an internet service. Only presumably financial ones.
Notably not all Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) qualifies as SaaSS, and many cases we may need to make SaaSS judgements feature-by-feature rather than product-by-product.
This is an important concept since proprietary software has now shapeshifted into SaaSS. Any favourite examples?
@alcinnz@neil Adobe Creative Suite is a fairly major offender. While the capex price for that stuff was extremely high subscription certainly provides “easy-in” for new starters, the total removal of an owned option is of course just a money play.
@alcinnz Do you mean, for example the sort of things like local devices locally configured such as WiFi APs or aircon units but they are done with a mobile app front end on some internet cloud back end service that then talks to the local unit. It forces a totally unnecessary dependency on the service and connection and company for something that should be 100% local and on network.
@revk@alcinnz The one that gets me is core network hardware (switches, etc.) that needs to be configured through the cloud...
"We need the internet working so we can configure our core switch" -> "But you can't have the internet working until you've configured your core switch".
@revk@alcinnz And don't get me started on hardware licensing - e.g. wifi APs and switches that actually stop working when your licence runs out. (Meraki I'm looking at you!)
I guess its ok if you're definitely going to replace that kit in 5 years' time, but you're backing yourself into a budgetary corner where you're going to have to replace it in 5 years' time even if you can't afford it, because if you don't your network is dead.
@revk@alcinnz I came across one site a few years ago, where replacing all their Meraki wifi kit with equivalent Unifi was cheaper than buying a 1 year Meraki licence for their existing kit... and yes, I know people are going to say "but unifi isn't as good", but there is no world in which extending the licence for your existing hardware for a year should cost more than actually replacing everything with brand new hardware from a competitor.
@revk@alcinnz The site in question ended up buying the expensive Meraki licence because they were essentially being held to ransom - their licence had run out and their network was down unexpectedly.
@steve@revk@alcinnz Good vs good enough though isn't it. If you are running a home, small office, small hotel, co-working space, etc then Unifi plus a support contract with a local installer is likely good enough.
On the other hand if you are in a complex environment with high support requirements then Aruba or Cisco may well be worth the money.
@danieldurrans@revk@alcinnz Even in a large environment, I would probably opt for UniFi over "your whole network will stop working with no notice and completely screw you at some point in the future".
In this case, the customer had contracted a company to install their wifi. Some time later the installer went bust. Then the Meraki licence expiry reminders went to the bust company and therefore weren't dealt with. The first the customer knew was when their network collapsed overnight.
@danieldurrans@revk@alcinnz Of course there are lots of things that led to the end result of a completely non-functional network and say "well they screwed up", but IMHO the biggest screwup is putting yourself in a position where failing to renew a licence for kit you already bought causes it to stop working. Its not as if the kit depends on some cloud service to continue working - the "stop when the licence expires" thing is entirely artificial.
@risottobias@alcinnz Databases just work. At scale or not. Some applications for databases work better at scale.
That folder full of MP3s for your music player? Database. Pretty much every app on your phone has a local database (although it may also connect to a central one).
Google maps is a good example of a database that's better at scale – we all share the same map. My passwords? Not so much.
@fishidwardrobe@alcinnz regarding RSS readers, I check my RSS feeds on 4 different devices, and I want to keep in sync what I have already read from what is new.
What alternative architecture do you propose for that?
@sergi I would concur that for people operating across multiple devices (which doesn't include my or presumably @fishidwardrobe usecases) putting both password managers & feedreaders in the cloud delivers very real value!
There's more clear-cut examples of what I'm asking for, I've seen (and secretly predicted) Adobe Creative Cloud being repeatedly given.
@alcinnz
The SaaS business model assumed that people find it convenient to let somebody else run the software that they use. This assumption has worked well so far.
In SaaSS, the implicit assumption is that people are losing something in not getting a copy of the software. People are more concerned about not being able to export their data in an interoperable format.
If the FSF really assumed that there is no need for software running as an Internet service, would the AGPL exist?
@apophis True, I reckon it was probably coined in objection to SaaS. But when Stallman looked into what gets branded as SaaS he found he didn't always object.
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