The people are not talking about free software as their right. It just sucks the price went from free to ~$300/y.
We all know Autodesk can do whatever they want. But they created an expectation by providing free features for years.
All they did is make people loose trust in them.
Most personal users will just move to other free or cheaper software.
I point it out because I do think that's a meaningfully different price point.
Not forgetting your Windows licence or MacBook.
And it definitely sucks SOME features went from free to ~$300/y.
Maybe it wouldn't have happened if ALL of its users paid some amount of money to use it. Or even better, it wouldn't have happened if a batch of the free tier users didn't abuse the licensing agreements.
Trust works both ways.
And I completely understand that users may want to move to a different software. But in any case, building software has heavy costs associated with them. Most free and cheaper software would either catch up with the pricing eventually or not have the same features or support to sustain the free tier. Good luck.
I keep hearing people—who haven't paid for software and encourage others to not pay—complaining that they will stop using it. What's the downside for Autodesk here?
There's the downside.