-bowerbird:

>software so cheap that they'll just laugh when it "expires"
>and they have to take _another_ three dollars out of their pocket.


You've touched on where I think business software is going, namely leased.

I can imagine that business software will be provided via the net (in some
form) by companies on a lease contract basis. For example, when someone
calls up Word, they really don't have the software on their machine, but
instead subscribe to a service that provides them the the most current
version. In this way, no one at the company needs to keep abreast of the
most current versions AND the business managers always know that their
people have the most up-to-date software. Also, backups (becoming more
increasingly voluminous) are only concerned with data and not applications.

This arrangement also provide several advantages for the software
companies. But, I'm not going to elaborate on that. My point was that
leased software is, in my opinion, the way things are headed.

tedd


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