Numerous years ago, Autodesk imposed a three release limit on cheaper upgrades, and users hated it. Known as the "obit," the practiced forced users completely happy with their AutoCAD to pay less now for the upgrade -- or pay more later. Or buy an annual subscription -- the real reason for the obit.
In the real world, this would mean upgrading every three years, whether you want to or not.
(The obit is not entirely limited to three releases; Autodesk offers a 20% discount -- I think -- for upgraders older than 3 releases.)
Adobe has seen how much AutoCAD users hate the policy, and so last week implemented the same thing: upgrade within three releases, or else...
With the CS3 product cycle, Adobe instituted a "3 versions back" policy on upgrades. That is, you can upgrade to the current version of Adobe tools from any version up to three versions back.
It's a good thing I use obsolete software from Adobe (PageMaker 7), so I won't be facing any pressure to pay for unwanted upgrades.
Discount is 30%, not 20% BUT and a great big BUT it's mandatory to buy 1 Year Autodesk Subscription Program coverage with most purchases of this type (called "Legacy"). The 1 Year mandatory Subscription claws back some of the 30% discount, but you're pretty much guaranteed to get the next release for free when it comes out. If you didn't have Subscription & had to buy the single upgrade, it would cost more than the 1 Year Subscription, so it seems like a good deal.
Posted by: SL Engineering | Oct 06, 2008 at 06:19 PM