You will own nothing and be (un)happy

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Erosion of Digital Ownership & Rise of Subscriptions

  • Many commenters echo the article’s sense that digital “ownership” is now largely a fiction: apps, music, games, even hardware features are really rented.
  • Subscriptions are seen as designed for recurring billing, not recurring value, nudging products toward dependence (cloud, always‑online checks, server‑side features) and away from user control.
  • Some argue this makes companies lazy: they can ship half‑baked, ever‑changing products while users are locked in.
  • Others counter that true “lifetime including all future versions” is economically impossible; a one‑time payment can’t fund unlimited work. The real issue is deceptive “lifetime” marketing and the lack of fair one‑time upgrade paths.

Goodnotes, App Stores, and Dark Patterns

  • On Goodnotes specifically:
    • One camp says a “lifetime” license reasonably means lifetime access to that major version; expecting perpetual free upgrades is entitlement.
    • Another camp says calling it “lifetime” without clearly limiting it to that version is misleading, especially when later features are subscription‑only and no perpetual upgrade exists.
  • App stores are criticized for: no paid upgrade model, pushing developers to subscriptions, auto‑updates that can break “owned” binaries, and aggressive free‑trial paywalls and UX dark patterns.

Alternatives: FOSS, Local‑First, and Offline Tools

  • Strong advocacy for open source, local‑first, and offline‑capable software: real ownership is tied to source access, or at least stable binaries and plugin APIs.
  • Suggestions include Android + F‑Droid, self‑hosting, DRM‑free games (e.g. GOG), plain text/Markdown notes, and sticking to older perpetual versions of commercial tools.
  • Debate over licenses (MIT vs GPL, non‑commercial/“ethical” licenses) reflects tension between software freedom and restricting corporate use.

AI, Data, and Communities

  • Some see AI training on public data as analogous to human learning and opinion‑forming; others argue it’s extraction and monetization of community knowledge that undermines forums and search.
  • Embedded chatbots in search and SaaS are widely viewed as UX regressions driven by hype and ad models.

Media, Piracy, and Physical Ownership

  • Several users report retreating to CDs, vinyl, local media servers, and piracy to regain control and permanence.
  • Others object that mass piracy harms creators and that subscriptions can work where there is strong competition and reasonable pricing.

Wider Structural Critiques

  • Comments connect “own nothing” trends to: locked‑down hardware, car features via subscription, app‑only banking/parking, inflationary finance, and high taxation.
  • Proposed responses range from individual tech choices and FOSS adoption to political lobbying for regulation and digital rights.