LabVIEW Roadmap 2022 Q3

[OneOfTheDans]

100% agree about the threat of deactivation. My subscription just renewed and it got caught up in my company's purchasing department for some reason. I'm the primary LabVIEW developer at my company and thought I'd get locked out just because the 1 year timer expired.

But beside the new threat of deactivation, I still consider similar: perpetual ~ perpetual with SSP ~ subscription. If I remember the old price structure, renewing a perpetual every 3-4 years cost about the same as just keeping your SSP active (by design, I'm sure!). And I consider annual SSP renewals the same as subscriptions (again, not including the new threat of deactivation). None of these options force you to upgrade the software either. I'm running LV2020SP1 with my up-to-date subscription, just like an SSP would allow access to any historic version.

On a positive note @EricR, I like that the new subscriptions are simple to understand. I was so sick of explaining that you can't buy LabVIEW, only 1-3 years of subscription (SSP) - the SSP is retroactive to all earlier versions, and it doesn't expire because you can use it forever, but you still need to renew it to get updates - renewal prices vary wildly depending on when you renew, and how many years you purchase.

[billko]

---

@OneOfTheDans wrote:

100% agree about the threat of deactivation. My subscription just renewed and it got caught up in my company's purchasing department for some reason. I'm the primary LabVIEW developer at my company and thought I'd get locked out just because the 1 year timer expired.

But beside the new threat of deactivation, I still consider similar: perpetual ~ perpetual with SSP ~ subscription. If I remember the old price structure, renewing a perpetual every 3-4 years cost about the same as just keeping your SSP active (by design, I'm sure!). And I consider annual SSP renewals the same as subscriptions (again, not including the new threat of deactivation). None of these options force you to upgrade the software either. I'm running LV2020SP1 with my up-to-date subscription, just like an SSP would allow access to any historic version.

On a positive note @EricR, I like that the new subscriptions are simple to understand. I was so sick of explaining that you can't buy LabVIEW, only 1-3 years of subscription (SSP) - the SSP is retroactive to all earlier versions, and it doesn't expire because you can use it forever, but you still need to renew it to get updates - renewal prices vary wildly depending on when you renew, and how many years you purchase.

---

That's like saying nuclear warfare is the same as conventional warfare but without the nukes.

[OneOfTheDans]

---

That's like saying nuclear warfare is the same as conventional warfare but without the nukes.

---

🤣

In all seriousness though, there's value in breaking a problem into its parts. It's unlikely NI is going to overhaul the licensing structure again any time soon, but they might be able to tweak it to address any pinpointed complaints.

[EricR]

@OneOfTheDans 

I'm glad that some of the changes have helped to simplify NI's software options. Thanks for sharing that feedback.

One of the largest, most consistent feedback we get is that we have too many options for our products in general.  It is difficult to figure out what you need to buy, unless you have already successfully purchased it before.  You will see us take many actions to make it easier to figure out what to buy.  In some cases, this will be combining multiple similar options into a single option, in some cases we will eliminate options that weren't popular or weren't satisfactory to the people who were using them.

If anyone has any suggestions for ways we can make it easier to find the products you need, and make it obvious that you have found the right options, please let us know.  The more specific the suggestion, the easier it is to take action on it.

[EricR]

We are absolutely looking for ways to identify and address gaps and problems.  I'll be posting again in the near future related to this.  Thanks to everyone for the continued engagement.

[EricR]

I'm confused about this post.  NI introduced the LabVIEW Community Edition specifically for the "tinkerers" back in 2018.  Why is that not a successful on-ramp for anyone looking to explore with LabVIEW right now?

Also, NI is also experimenting with other "exploration" options so we will likely be able to talk about multiple options in the future here but I want to make sure I understand what gap the Community Edition has, based on this thread.