CIO Mag gets it right The economics of the software industry drives it to produce bad code that does not meet user needs. Extortionate licenses, bugs, useless features, endless "upgrades" are all part and parcel of how software biz works. While some CIOs may believe shorter licenses, or software subscriptions will help them out, they're sorely mistaken. For companies with a locked-in customer base, the most important competitor is old versions of their stuff. Shorter licenses (or subscriptions) leave business as locked-in, but also eliminate their ability to avoid pointless, costly upgrades. To have technology that makes your life easier you have to upgrade on your terms, not the vendors.

The only real solution is for business to take responsibility for its own software. This may mean cobbling together systems from many vendors. This will certainly mean protecting yourself from vendor lock-in by avoiding one-stop solutions. And it will absolutely mean looking at what the people in your business actually do and creating environments around their actual behavior. Economic buyers will have to align with the needs of users and use those to make software purchase decisions. Thanks to RE for the link.