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NI's move to subscription software


@daphilli wrote:

I'm building out an Electronic Engineering lab and searching for software now. The move to subscription licensing is a deal breaker for me. I'm searching for a permanent LabView license while looking at competing alternatives for LabView.

 

LabView is a useful product but...

1. Price is too expensive. My previous employers (Micel, Applied Materials) agree. This is a factor in my hesitancy to buy and their decisions not to renew. The permanent license is about $7k/seat/OS. A three OS set is about $21k. About a third of this is my threshold of pain.

 


You can apparently install all OS versions off a single license. Just so that you know that, Of course they can't be used simultaneously, but there are no separate Win, Linux and Mac licenses and more.

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Message 31 of 73
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Thank you, Intaris. Thats welcome news; "You can apparently install all OS versions off a single license". That moves me much closer to buying LabVIEW for my new lab. This works with the Permanent LabView Professional license?

 

Features and support for Windows are stronger, and more prospective clients use Windows. But, Windows has an unfortunate tendency of updating and rebooting in the middle of long tests. Each new version of Windows makes it more and more difficult to turn that feature off, by proliferating the settings and burying them. Windows also phones home a lot and to many IP addresses, raising concerns of proprietary data leakage. So, I will be deploying using Macs in my lab. But, in the future as/if LabVIEW adds Arm support, I want to be able to natively develop, compile and install apps on Linux on Raspberry Pi 4 to mock up a new product idea.

 

I'll sleep much better tonight knowing that it is much less likely that I'll need to slog through hundreds of IDEs looking for a LabVIEW replacement.

Message 32 of 73
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@daphilli wrote:

Features and support for Windows are stronger, and more prospective clients use Windows. But, Windows has an unfortunate tendency of updating and rebooting in the middle of long tests. Each new version of Windows makes it more and more difficult to turn that feature off, by proliferating the settings and burying them. Windows also phones home a lot and to many IP addresses, raising concerns of proprietary data leakage.


A suggestion regarding your Windows stability concerns... You could consider their IoT variants for deployment on your mission critical test systems. If you don't have domain experts in-house, you can hire a consultant help you configure one instance; and then use disk imaging tools to deploy to additional computers. Sean Liming, author of a few books on the topic, is a great consultant. My coworker engaged his services successfully for tablet computers used in assistive devices for surgical procedures.

Message 33 of 73
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@daphilli wrote:

... This works with the Permanent LabView Professional license?

 

...


I do not believe NI offers a permanent LabVIEW license.


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Please join the conversation to keep LabVIEW relevant for future engineers. Price hikes plus SaaS model has many current engineers seriously concerned...

Read the Conversation Here, LabVIEW-subscription-model-for-2022
Message 34 of 73
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@daphilli wrote:

I'm building out an Electronic Engineering lab and searching for software now. The move to subscription licensing is a deal breaker for me. I'm searching for a permanent LabView license while looking at competing alternatives for LabView.

 

LabView is a useful product but...

 

3. NI never fixes the primary problem I encounter in LabView which is that the Development IDE drawing environment slows down as projects and VIs grow in complexity. This is a major source of suffering when working on big, complex projects under tight development schedules. I don't feel I'm getting my money's worth from ongoing subscription or renewal fees because this problem is not fixed.

 

 

 


While I agree in the most part regarding your first two points, I suspect that the third point has more to do with your code and implementation than LabVIEW itself. To me this sounds like your front panels, and possibly your VIs themselves, are too large and complicated. Making your system more modular, more use of sub-panels and better UI design, and other overall architecture improvements will most likely improve your overall experience. I work on very large projects and don't really encounter this issue. I have only really encountered on large monolithic projects that I have come across.



Mark Yedinak
Certified LabVIEW Architect
LabVIEW Champion

"Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?"
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot
Message 35 of 73
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Correct.  We made this change with the release of LabVIEW 2021.  Its in the NI EULA that installs with LabVIEW and other NI software.  Its just one license and it can be installed to any supported OS.  Its still either "per user" or "per computer" but you don't have to buy separate licenses for the same user just because they have both a Windows and Linux computer they want to use.

Eric Reffett | Director, Product Management | 1.512.683.8165 | ni.com
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Message 36 of 73
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In response to multiple requests here (and in other places) for NI to publish more details about our product roadmaps, I published a view into the LabVIEW Roadmap from the LabVIEW Product Management team today, 3/18/2022.  You can find it here:  https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/LabVIEW-Roadmap-2022/td-p/4218319

 

I'll pin this posting next week to make it easier to find.

 

In the meantime, please have a look and let us know what additional information you would like to find in this roadmap the next time we publish a version of it.

Eric Reffett | Director, Product Management | 1.512.683.8165 | ni.com
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Message 37 of 73
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Dear Eric,

 

we have several licences for the application builder - those appear to be perpetual.

 

Is there going to be a change?

 

Regards

Alex

Message 38 of 73
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Thank you, EricR. The change in the NI EULA to cover all 3 OS (Windows, Mac and Linux) is welcome. $30k was simply beyond reach. My LabVIEW Professional purchase is in progress. I'm buying 3 years of service under a permanent license for $10k.

Message 39 of 73
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It's true that breaking VIs up into a hierarchy of SubVIs reduces the edit-time click delay problem. But some projects simply have too much irreducible complexity and/or budgets that preclude code refactoring.

 

Some of my projects have very complex state machines and these exhibit editing click delays despite implementation of the in-state code as sub VIs. We're talking about ~3,000 VI projects controlling a flock of machines and instrumentation

 

Another project was cobbled together in haste when the subcontracted vendor failed. That one required code with a 3500 Cyclomatic Complexity multi-core, concurrent data analysis pipeline would have been impossible in any other language but LabVIEW G. The pipeline has to complete analysis of a stream of imaging data before motions of the machine complete, for making the next decisions. The code looks like a bomb detonated in a spaghetti factory but we succeeded in compiling a working and tested application as the installer was in a taxi to the customer site. The NI field engineers and I performed a code review and there wasn't much that could be done to reduce edit-time click delay in the allocated cost and time.

 

Fixing the edit-time click delay problem is definitely an upgrade that would make me happier with the license cost or subscription cost. When there are thousands of clicks, those 1 or 2s delays add up fast.

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Message 40 of 73
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