LabVIEW subscription model for 2022

[rolfk]

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@Ants_at_work wrote:

I don't see how Test Workflow is cheaper, especially if I need only LabView.

• Included LabView version is not clear. Let's assume its a "Base".

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It's actually not that complicated: https://www.ni.com/nl-nl/shop/electronic-test-instrumentation/what-is-test-workflow.html

Summary: Test Workflow Standard includes LabVIEW Full, Test Workflow Pro includes LabVIEW Professional which includes LabVIEW Application Builder and Advanced Analysis Library/Filter Design Toolkit. In addition you also get TestStand with the Pro package.

Nobody forces you to buy TestWorkflow. If you only use LabVIEW and nothing else, then of course by all means, you should only buy LabVIEW!

[Ants_at_work]

Thanks. Now I found the info too.

[gmand]

We are currently on LabVIEW 2018. I read through this entire discussion and also looked through the various NI web site links, but I'm still unsure of the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything following question: if we buy now, say, LabVIEW 2020, do we get a perpetual license (because that is a version of LabVIEW before the subscription model was introduced), or all we get is a 1-year subscription?

I did some work for folks who still use LabVIEW 2009. We were talking about an upgrade. If they buy, say, some really old version (like 2012, 2014, or thereabout), are they getting a 1-year subscription, or can they use their 2012 for ever?

When I say "buy", I mean "pay for 2023Q1 or whatever is the latest", but download and install 2012.

If anyone has a convincing answer, please share it! I tried to contact NI several time about this and could not get a definitive reply.

[rolfk]

Since January 2022 you can officially only buy subscriptions. If you are very insistent and get a sales person who can do that, you might get still a perpetual license for a significant price increase, but officially that part number does not exist anymore.

You can technically only buy the latest version but as long as you have a valid SSP or subscription you can also download, install and activate older versions. In case of a subscription, such license activation does expire on the day your subscription ends.

[JimB.]

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@gmand wrote:

We are currently on LabVIEW 2018. I read through this entire discussion and also looked through the various NI web site links, but I'm still unsure of the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything following question: if we buy now, say, LabVIEW 2020, do we get a perpetual license (because that is a version of LabVIEW before the subscription model was introduced), or all we get is a 1-year subscription?

I did some work for folks who still use LabVIEW 2009. We were talking about an upgrade. If they buy, say, some really old version (like 2012, 2014, or thereabout), are they getting a 1-year subscription, or can they use their 2012 for ever?

When I say "buy", I mean "pay for 2023Q1 or whatever is the latest", but download and install 2012.

If anyone has a convincing answer, please share it! I tried to contact NI several time about this and could not get a definitive reply.

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NI has, as far as I know, never sold specific versions. Notice that the purchase page just says "LabVIEW", not "LabVIEW 2023Q1".

Previously, you bought a perpetual license. That license entitled you to use whatever the current version was and any previous version for as long as you wish, but not future versions. To be entitled to upgrades, training, and support, you needed to purchase a SSP. That was a yearly maintenance fee basically renewed your license and brought your entitlement up to date with the latest version.

Now, you have to buy a subscription. The subscription similarly allows you to use the latest as well as any past version, but unlike the perpetual licenses you are no longer able to use any version if it is allowed to expire. Additionally, it's 

TLDR: You cannot buy LabVIEW 2020, or any specific version really.

[Ants_at_work]

Anyway NI will get out of business due to the fact it is not text based = much harder to be picked up by AI Tools like OpenAI ChatGPT.

[billko]

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@Ants_at_work wrote:

Anyway NI will get out of business due to the fact it is not text based = much harder to be picked up by AI Tools like OpenAI ChatGPT.

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As much as it is in fashion to disparage NI, this isn't going to be the reason for the gradual demise of LabVIEW.  Yes, it will be gradual because there is a lot of legacy code that won't be going away anytime soon.

But have you actually asked a LabVIEW question?  It may not be able to generate the code, but it tells you where in the palettes to find all the pieces and tells you how to put them together.

[rolfk]

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@Ants_at_work wrote:

Anyway NI will get out of business due to the fact it is not text based = much harder to be picked up by AI Tools like OpenAI ChatGPT.

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If it was not such a hateful nonsense it could almost have been written by ChatGPT. NI is not going out of business for sure anytime soon although it may stop to exist as NI depending on who is going to win the current take over bid that Emerson started with their hostile takeover. And there is a possibility that the new owner does not like LabVIEW and either cancels it or perverts it into a ChatGPT powered nonsense. 

LabVIEW is for the post ~2016 NI pretty much a nostalgia product but has economically little value. If LabVIEW gets canceled it would potentially have a positive influence on the balance sheet of the bean counters but some people might feel like killing some others😀. But nothing to be worried from pure share holder value viewpoints.

And I know that ChatGPT is the craze right now. And lots of people spell doom and devastation over anyone and anything that does not embrace it immediately. Over 5 years however everybody will ask: ChatGPT? Bard? Bing AI? Ohhh you mean that hype! Ahh yeah that was when everybody thought we had found AI but it was in fact just an advanced Eliza that could make amazing well sounding sentences to tell partially correct facts scraped from the web.

The amazing thing about OpenAI is its advanced language models that seem to have found a way to capture the complexity of human languages well enough that it can build well rounded and correct sounding sentences. In that respect it even can surpass the language capabilities of quite a few humans. And it does so in a lot of different languages. What it says in those sentences is still mostly basic knowledge and quite often not entirely correct and sometimes entirely not correct.

[billko]

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@rolfk wrote:

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@Ants_at_work wrote:

Anyway NI will get out of business due to the fact it is not text based = much harder to be picked up by AI Tools like OpenAI ChatGPT.

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If it was not such a hateful nonsense it could almost have been written by ChatGPT. NI is not going out of business for sure anytime soon although it may stop to exist as NI depending on who is going to win the current take over bid that Emerson started with their hostile takeover. And there is a possibility that the new owner does not like LabVIEW and either cancels it or perverts it into a ChatGPT powered nonsense. 

LabVIEW is for the post ~2016 NI pretty much a nostalgia product but has economically little value. If LabVIEW gets canceled it would potentially have a positive influence on the balance sheet of the bean counters but some people might feel like killing some others😀. But nothing to be worried from pure share holder value viewpoints.

And I know that ChatGPT is the craze right now. And lots of people spell doom and devastation over anyone and anything that does not embrace it immediately. Over 5 years however everybody will ask: ChatGPT? Bard? Bing AI? Ohhh you mean that hype! Ahh yeah that was when everybody thought we had found AI but it was in fact just an advanced Eliza that could make amazing well sounding sentences to tell partially correct facts scraped from the web.

The amazing thing about OpenAI is its advanced language models that seem to have found a way to capture the complexity of human languages well enough that it can build well rounded and correct sounding sentences. In that respect it even can surpass the language capabilities of quite a few humans. And it does so in a lot of different languages. What it says in those sentences is still mostly basic knowledge and quite often not entirely correct and sometimes entirely not correct.

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Like any tool, you have to know how to use it (AI-driven chat bots) or risk taking an eye out.  But I always seem to ask the questions that get only vague responses.

[Jay14159265]

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@rolfk wrote:

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And I know that ChatGPT is the craze right now. And lots of people spell doom and devastation over anyone and anything that does not embrace it immediately. Over 5 years however everybody will ask: ChatGPT? Bard? Bing AI? Ohhh you mean that hype! Ahh yeah that was when everybody thought we had found AI but it was in fact just an advanced Eliza that could make amazing well sounding sentences to tell partially correct facts scraped from the web.

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I agree that in 5 years ChatGPT, Brad, Bing will be prehistoric technology but not because it was hype. In 5 years 2 years we will all be working for our benevolent AI overlords : )