Hacker News Reader

Comment by walterbell | Hacker News Reader

> Software as a Service is impossible to pirate

There are SaaS business models with local/native desktop software, e.g. Adobe CC.

iOS AppStore-monetized software can run locally and be licensed as a subscription. Apple encourages local computation and continues to add both hardware and software for on-device processing.

x86 clients are adding SGX (hardware secure enclaves) which provide stronger mechanisms for endpoint license enforcement. This can support multiple business models, including subscriptions.

View on HN

Local computation makes sense especially from a user experience perspective. However, another challenge arises from talent availability and willingness to work with this sort of deployment model. More complex deployments generally lead to the need of hiring really top notch engineers, which as we know is quite scarce. The next best thing might be infrastructure that makes the deployment easier but no one's really interested in investing in infrastructure tech without some tangible reward.

This is an excellent point which may be an advantage for top tier engineers who can build a company in this space, avoiding the glut of "cloud" competition. Once they have proven the business model and infrastructure, they can provide easy-to-use interfaces for "desktop native" writers of apps. In some verticals, these may the users themselves. There is precedent in spreadsheets.

"The next best thing might be infrastructure that makes the deployment easier but no one's really interested in investing in infrastructure tech without some tangible reward."

Almost every OS vendor is investing in deployment and packaging, because it's perceived that users now expect either zero-install or app store experiences.

The issue is that most OS vendors are incentivized to make themselves gatekeepers and insert themselves into the delivery chain, for financial or security reasons. That always causes conflicting requirements. It's interesting to look at Flatpak, which is not built to privilege an OS vendor, versus almost anything else.

Adobe CC is desktop software with a monthly licensing fee.

In other words, software as a service. You can only use the service as long as you keep paying.

That’s not saas

Reply on news.ycombinator.com