Hacker News Reader

Comment by AGKyle | Hacker News Reader

Re: 1. Got it.

Re: 2. It's not just subscription. Download the app (Mac or Windows) and in the options choose to create a new local vault. You'll be presented with a dialog to buy a license if you don't already have one.

I get the complaints about subscriptions, but there are certainly pieces of software I am willing to pay a subscription for. One that is actively improved, secured, and is used throughout my day is one of them. Your opinion on this may be different of course.

I really appreciate the input though. Thank you!

Kyle

1Password Security Team

View on HN

Hey Kyle! Been a long time paying user. 1Password has helped me help my family use better passwords. We all have local vaults, but I often recommend and help onboard companies I consult with to the hosted service. Thanks for building an awesome app!

Hi Nathan!

Thanks for the kind words. I'll make sure to pass this along to our team. It's always great when we hear positives. Sometimes the negatives can overwhelm the positive in terms of feedback.

If I can do anything to help you with the consulting side please reach out via our support team and you're welcome to ask for me. If I can't help you then I'll get you in touch with someone that is able to do so.

Kyle

1Password Security Team

How would you regain access to the passwords in the local vault if the phone breaks or gets stolen and prevent them from being lost?

I chose not to use a local vault because I fear those scenarios more than the cloud sync via 1Password being compromised.

You can still make backups on all platforms. So it would be a matter of restoring a backup. Typically someone with local vaults also syncs (to either iCloud or Dropbox) so in theory as long as they still have access to that account they can sign in and access their 1Password data. I'd still suggest backups in addition to that, a sync file is constantly changing, and is not an actual backup.

Hope that helps though!

Kyle

1Password Security Team

As an ex-1Password user, y'all lost me when you released a new Windows client that didn't support local vaults and let the old client stagnate while pushing everyone to switch to a cloud subscription.

I waited and waited for local vault support to come back and finally migrated to something else. No other password manager is as good as 1Password but stringing that out for so long cost AgileBits my business, forever.

Sorry for the trouble.

We had a greater need for the 1Password.com support in the Windows client. So when we started our rewrite efforts it focused on that.

In general, we'd agree that it took longer than we wanted, and I'm sorry if that caused you to leave. In the end we were really doing the best we could given the demands we had and the time/resources available to do it. It sounds like in this case it wasn't enough.

Kyle

1Password Security Team

> but there are certainly pieces of software I am willing to pay a subscription for.

There shouldn't be.

> One that is actively improved, secured, and is used throughout my day is one of them.

Not when those problems are completely self-inflicted by injecting Cloud Bullshit into stuff that doesn't need it.

If there weren't pieces of software that people were willing to pay a subscription for, then software quality would be horrible. The reason why 1Password is so good is that the developers are paid to work on it, and some business needs (such as having really good quality stuff so you can get recommended to more potential customers, and so that your existing customers don't leave) push you towards higher quality software. When working on OSS for free, the need to survive pushes you to work at a job, and your OSS work is done in your spare time, often to get things you want done, but not to make an amazingly polished and very user-friendly work.

Subscriptions allow developers to keep improving their software. If you just pay for software once and keep using an older version, developers miss out on money that could keep them working and improving things. OSS is great, but money is important for developers to deliver quality and updates.

I don't remember software quality being a ton worse before software subscriptions became common. Operating systems and certain development practices (maybe, less certain about that one) have led to some noticeable improvements, but that mostly happened before the shift.

I really really don't like software subscriptions, but for a password manager there is obvious ongoing work just to keep it functioning.

It's one thing to use a standalone app like MS Money for 20 years with various hacks and compatibility modes to keep it working. Over the time I've used a password manager I've seen OS and browser updates break parts like plugins or syncing. I've transitioned to using passwords more on my phone (and phone APIs have changed).

The major difference you may be overlooking is that now everything is connected and online, and as a result the software we use day-to-day needs much more active maintenance than before.

When you had a computer sitting in your home that connected to the Internet via modem for 2 hours a day, your OS or apps could be riddled with hidden bugs and holes and it didn't matter as much.

Now we are constantly operating in insecure-by-default environments, and (responsible) companies have to spend much more to monitor, improve and maintain their applications over time, as devices change, underlying operating systems change, new threats are detected and published, etc..

Hence subscriptions..

Software quality was a lot higher before the Internet was a thing. What you shipped had to work, as shipping patches was non-trivial and expensive.

Most such software wasn't subscription based either.

*Citation needed

Reply on news.ycombinator.com