11-29-2021 10:47 AM
My company has been dutifully renewing our SSP every year. We are still using LV2020 SP1 PDS and haven't even bothered to upgrade to 2021 yet. My question is: Budgets are tight... so could we just not renew our SSP and continue developing and building our applications using 2020? I know we wouldn't get access to support or new releases, but could we still use the old version we paid for?
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11-29-2021 11:37 AM
I think you should talk to NI directly about this to be certain, but as I understand it you can buy perpetual licenses for LV that are always valid, and you can buy an SSP that gives you access to service requests, software upgrades, etc. I think you can also buy software leases that are annual fees that mean your license stops working when you stop paying for it. My company has done both in the past, so you'll need to look and see what type of license you actually have.
11-29-2021 11:38 AM
Yes you can use the versions you paid for forever.
You will not get any support directly from NI (without paying per indecent) and you will not get any new releases without buying them new.
11-29-2021 11:44 AM - edited 11-29-2021 11:47 AM
It is curious that if I go to the Buy LabVIEW page, all prices are now listed as $XXX/year. I wonder if anything changed as of LabVIEW 2021 compared to before.
EDIT: Actually, If I follow the link, I can chose between subscription(default)" or "perpetual" where perpetual is significant more expensive.
11-29-2021 02:54 PM - edited 11-29-2021 03:03 PM
Without SSP you loose:
- Downloads to new versions
- Downloads to older versions (that could include your version you have s license for)
- Priority support (used to be second to none, then NI almost dropped the ball entirely but recently support is back to very good levels in several cases I had, where they did go an extra mile to offer solutions that were definitely beyond normal support)
There are several different licenses you can get from NI. If you bought a single license for FDS or PDS, you pretty much certainly got a perpetual license which is valid forever for the version you bought and was last valid when your SSP expires. If you got the Base version you got a yearly software lease. The license to use your software is only valid for as long as you pay the software lease. If you got a multi user license or site license it is probably a year lease too, but you have to make sure if your company paid a yearly multi user or site license lease or really the SSP for a perpetual license.
Only a perpetual license will stay valid after you stop paying the yearly fees. And you won't have download access anymore to older LabVIEW license. Without a valid SSP contract you can only download the currently valid LabVIEW installer but you won't be able to activate it with your old license as that license is only valid for the LabVIEW version that was active when your SSP expired.
But Altenbach brings up an interesting point. The yearly prices are definitely a new thing and for FDS and PDS different to what they used to be. If you click through to actually order a license you can however select if you want to buy a yearly license or a perpetual one. Both include one year of SSP, and the yearly SSP fee is about the same as the yearly lease price.
11-29-2021 06:25 PM
@rolfk wrote:
Without SSP you loose:
- Downloads to new versions
- Downloads to older versions (that could include your version you have s license for)
- Priority support (used to be second to none, then NI almost dropped the ball entirely but recently support is back to very good levels in several cases I had, where they did go an extra mile to offer solutions that were definitely beyond normal support)
There are several different licenses you can get from NI. If you bought a single license for FDS or PDS, you pretty much certainly got a perpetual license which is valid forever for the version you bought and was last valid when your SSP expires. If you got the Base version you got a yearly software lease. The license to use your software is only valid for as long as you pay the software lease. If you got a multi user license or site license it is probably a year lease too, but you have to make sure if your company paid a yearly multi user or site license lease or really the SSP for a perpetual license.
Only a perpetual license will stay valid after you stop paying the yearly fees. And you won't have download access anymore to older LabVIEW license. Without a valid SSP contract you can only download the currently valid LabVIEW installer but you won't be able to activate it with your old license as that license is only valid for the LabVIEW version that was active when your SSP expired.
But Altenbach brings up an interesting point. The yearly prices are definitely a new thing and for FDS and PDS different to what they used to be. If you click through to actually order a license you can however select if you want to buy a yearly license or a perpetual one. Both include one year of SSP, and the yearly SSP fee is about the same as the yearly lease price.
You also lose access to the free online courses. This includes any certificates that you might have. (It doesn't invalidate them, you just can't look at them any more.)
12-03-2021 08:10 AM
I confirmed this with NI:
Which is basically what everyone here has been telling me, but now its confirmed. I also noticed that SSP members can request install media (eg on USB key)... which I did... but no response to my request yet.
Thank you all! Not sure if I'm going to actually let SSP lapse, though. The improvements in LabVIEW from year to year may not be worth it for me, and I don't need much support... but that is a separate question.
12-14-2021 02:07 PM
I just today received an email from NI announcing that they're switching to a subscription-based licensing model, which basically means that if you buy a subscription and then let it expire, the software will stop working. This is different from what used to happen if you let your SSP expire, which would cut you off from new versions and support, but the software would work indefinitely. They have a FAQ page here: https://www.ni.com/en-us/landing/subscription-software.html
12-14-2021 02:57 PM
@AaronTeitlebaum wrote:
I just today received an email from NI announcing that they're switching to a subscription-based licensing model, which basically means that if you buy a subscription and then let it expire, the software will stop working. This is different from what used to happen if you let your SSP expire, which would cut you off from new versions and support, but the software would work indefinitely. They have a FAQ page here: https://www.ni.com/en-us/landing/subscription-software.html
This is pretty ugly if you are planning on installing a new version of LV in '22. I guess they want to chase away the final loyal customers. Another thought. Now everyone will have to go through the same special hell that was, until now, reserved for LV Community Edition users.
12-14-2021 03:06 PM - edited 12-14-2021 03:07 PM
@AaronTeitlebaum wrote:
I just today received an email from NI announcing that they're switching to a subscription-based licensing model, which basically means that if you buy a subscription and then let it expire, the software will stop working. This is different from what used to happen if you let your SSP expire, which would cut you off from new versions and support, but the software would work indefinitely. They have a FAQ page here: https://www.ni.com/en-us/landing/subscription-software.html
WOW this sucks! We use LabVIEW Professional but have no need for Teststand or any of the other stuff they are selling.
Why should we pay for software we do not need? Why don't they just drop the stuff nobody is buying instead of forcing us to buy it in hopes we will use it?
This may be the end of LabVIEW for our company!