LaTeX – A document preparation system
LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system; it includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation. LaTeX is the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents. LaTeX is available as free software.

Warum schreibt ihr nicht einfach mit Pages?

Sein wir mal ehrlich, an der zunehmenden Anzahl von Abo-Software im iOS/macOS-Bereich ist Apple nicht unschuldig. Seit Bestehen des App Stores gibt es keine vernünftige Möglichkeit für Entwickler kostenpflichtigeUpdates anzubieten.

There have been concepts to mitigate the above problems. The most common one being “paid updates”. Paid updates mean, that instead of improving an app for free forever, there will be a point where no new features are added to the current version. Instead, the developer will make a copy of the app in its current state, and add new functionality to that copy only. Nothing changes for new users, of course, but existing users will have to pay again, if they want to get the new features.

Now, in order to make existing users pay again, developers usually offer them a substantial discount on the new version. So new users will pay full, existing customers will pay just a fraction of the asking price.

At first glance, this solves the problem of a developer not getting appropriate compensation for their work, right? After all, they are being compensated for their development cost, so income is somewhat continuous. Problem solved, eh?
Well… this post wouldn’t exist if we believed this was the answer. A lot of problems remain unsolved with this model, and new problems are introduced. And then there are problems with Ulysses in particular. Worst of all, the most glaring issues with the “pay once” model remain untouched: Huge spikes during releases, relatively low sales otherwise, and the persistent uncertainty of how new user streams will develop in the future.

It’s perfectly obvious that the overall situation is the same for paid updates as for one-time purchases. The situation is less severe than with the paid-once system — the sales spikes after bigger releases will be much higher –, but after each release, sales will fall back to a similar level.

Also, existing users may not update at all. As such, sales will essentially fall back to a comparable level of what would have been without a paid update. And so it comes as no surprise that developers of apps on the paid upgrade model keep mentioning that they depend on users upgrading. The sale spike (i.e. the number of updaters) during each release is still elementary to them getting over the development time. There have to be paid updates. On a (somewhat) regular basis.

Now, paid updates need justification. You can’t just change a few small things, add a new icon and call for money. The update needs to add significantly to the current experience, or else there’s no reason to even update. So in order to create an interesting, pay-worthy package, multiple major features need to be bundled together. But… big releases take time, and the bigger the release, the more time it takes. You risk getting delayed, users will start to complain and probably look elsewhere — there’s a huge risk in depending on paid updates, if you can’t guarantee release dates. Which usually you can’t.

Plus, updates pose a certain risk for the users, too: Will everything still work as expected? Will my beloved interface have changed? And what about the user who just bought the app? Buy it one week and be asked for more money the next? Nobody is happy about that. You can keep the “old” version, sure, and developers try to solve this conflict by pre-announcing releases, or by offering free updates if you bought within the last 8 or 12 weeks or so, but that certainly doesn’t help to keep things simple, does it?

And let’s just say you don’t update. You simply stay on the previous version, because you don’t think you need the new features, or because you find the update price not worth it. How long will this very version continue to work? On the same device and the same operating system… probably “forever”, sure. But does that really hold nowadays, when people get new phones every two years and OS updates are free?

Zumindest für die Ulysses-Entwickler wären paid upgrades auch nicht die Lösung des Grundproblems, wie sie ausführlich hier darlegen:

Sehe gerade, dass der Artikel gar nicht erwähnt, dass Besitzer der aktuellen Vollversion für einen begrenzten Zeitraum das Jahresabo für 20 Euro/Jahr bekommen können. Das sind dann < 2 Euro/Monat.

wie kommen die Entwickler immer darauf, dass die Kunden das Abomodell mit ständigen Updates dem Vollpreis vorziehen?

Zumindest für die Ulysses-Entwickler wären paid upgrades auch nicht die Lösung des Grundproblems, wie sie ausführlich hier darlegen:

Wo ich mir gerade die aktuelle Version von Papyrus ansehe, scheint es mir nicht (mehr) das für mich sinvollste Programm zu sein.

Welches Programm ist für die Erstellung eines Handbuches für Software sinnvoll.
Anforderungen:
Einfache Texteingabe mit Rechtschreibkorrektur.
Einfache Platzierung von Bildern incl. Umfluss.
Automatische Erstellung von Inhalts- und Stichwortverzeichnis.
Erzeugung einer PDF-Version, die Links vom Inhalts-/Stichwortverzeichnis auf die Textstellen bietet.
Hab isch etwas vergessen?

Vorschläge?

Abos sind eine Seuche. Ich will Software, die ich nutze, besitzen. Und ich bin gerne auch bereit für Software und Updates zu zahlen. Aus diesem Grund versuche ich auch mich so oft wie möglich außerhalb des App-Stores auf den Entwicklerseiten zu bewegen.
Letztendlich ist es ja so: jedes Programm ist ersetzbar. Wer mich also in ein Abo zwingt, fliegt.