0/10 I do not recommend adobe suite, thanks for asking.
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Everyone missed the other buzz word in the ceo position addā¦its very important in terms of all this speculative fictionā¦
āSCALABLEā
Scalability is about having zero down time and potential infinite growth with no hurdles to slow the speed of the serviceability, you make / develop the product onceā¦then if you sell five or a billion, a truely elastic SaaS model could deliver either wayā¦the only difference is bottom line turn over.
Software can do thisā¦Hardware cannotā¦
Hardware manufacturing is limited by materials, parts, manufacturing time, labour, transport, logistics, warehousing, printing, packaging, blah blah blahā¦the current Elektron model is in no way SCALABLE, if Elektron recieved an order for a billion Octatracks tomorrow they simply could not deliverā¦but the with a scalable SaaS model the software code for the OT could be on every single human beings computer by close of businessā¦no hurdlesā¦
The fact that the add uses the word SCALABLE marks a very strong intention for a directional shift imoā¦
Its sounds good to joint venture partners or share holders etcā¦ but it is completely out of touch with the market. I can understand why MS office or Adobe is in enough demand to need an elastic SCALABLE model, but music software of any kind? Just how many of us geeky button pushers do they think are out there? If the OT was an iPad app it would definately lose all sex appealā¦
And FL studio 20 is a one time payment for the license, with free upgrades for lifeā¦FYIā¦if i hadnāt already bought it 10 years ago thats where i would be spending my coinā¦
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This a good analysis! I am just not certain that so much reflection went in the job add into the first place. I quite often come across āscalableā as a kind of buzzword these days.
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In 2021 scalability has to be the first consideration for a SaaS product.
I work with older products and horizontal scaling is a COMPLETE pain in the ass, as is the decomposition to microservices.
I have my reservations about the model, but if youāre doing to do it, be able to scale it 
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Itās sentences like this that make me glad Iām a fucking housewife.
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Note mainly to self, if Elektron are planning on releasing some type of computer based brain that allows communication between unitsā¦like an OB master brain / DAWā¦then i am totally understanding why they may need a new helmsmaster with those relevant skills, to steer things in a new, positive direction that would see me getting my wallet outā¦monthly or upfrontā¦i dont care about the delivery mechanism just take my cashā¦
The definition of success is to make paying for bytes so transparent that users donāt even know itās there. Also, it doesnāt have to be a monthly subscription to be profitable.
In my opinion, the core functionality of the creative aspect of the product cannot be behind a paywall.
But if you want access to content and the ability to share, upload and/or downloadā¦thatās where you can make it optional and really experiment with services that are appealing.
I think itād be quite interesting to have a built-in āApp Storeā for products at various levels: soundpacks, sample packs, machines, effects. Make it so transparent that youāre scrolling through cloud-based content as if youāre scrolling through a patch list on the device and when you load a sample pack or machine, youāve just paid 99 cents and youāre still in your workflow.
The magical fairy dust on top is if you can have content development kits that are easy enough for ANYONE in the customer community to use to developā¦even as far as developing machines and effects. That pours an extra layer of lacquer over the community adhesion and ābeing part of a clubā feeling.
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Seriously, if they can develop more machines and algorithms, updated filter models, and not have the cloud be a glorified dongle ala Adobe or Roland, iām not horrified.
My expectations are realistic here, i can surely be disappointed.
But if itās not my bag i just wonāt use it. I do hope that a company that still makes innovative products can approach this from a more creative vector, and thereās too much complaining on the internet for me to waste more energy.
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Hey donāt worry, looks like soon PC as a service is coming FFS.
Iāve hated windows since they stopped supporting XP and have avoided them like the plague ever since.
The only time I turn a PC on now is to update firmware on my gear.
I can only imagine how awful windows would be as a cloud service.
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Yikes, heard rumors about this last year from a friend that works for Microsoft. Was hoping he was misinformed.
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Seriously though, last time I turned my laptop on over Christmas, it was about 2 hours before it was actually useable. It hadnāt been turned on for about a year and just locked itself into a cycle of trying to update, then freezing for a bit, then updating, then configuring those updates before realising there were more updates that it needed to do since it had updated and going through the whole process again. Twice.
Imagine youāre using their cloud service and all of a sudden everything freezes before a message appears informing you that the data centre needs to update for a week, as it has experienced a critical yet unknown error.
Itās no wonder they use the blue screen of death as their default theme.
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Yeah I fucking hate windows for this kind of BS, XP was the best version, incidentally there are people working on recreating it 100% compatible but not using Microsoft code, think it is a way off yet though.
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Wine is pretty damn good for many things. Loads of AAA games work amazingly well on linux these days. What doesnāt work is anything requiring custom drivers, which unfortunately means you canāt run things like patch librarians for old synths, because they often (unnecessarily IMHO) require custom drivers. So itās fine for games, but less so for music and anything interfacing with external hardware (unless it only uses class compliant USB features, or does everything via sysex messages).
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I think a subscription service for functionality updates could beinteresting if that made supporting older boxes by shipping substancial updates for old machines more sustainable for Elektron. A big plus would be if those updates were based on community feedback. Imagine Elektron chosing a couple of feasible feature request from the community and and then let the subscribers vote for the next features to tackle. I have seen this interaction between devs and users for some early access (indie) games and I think itās agreat thing and can help a product a lot.
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if I had to choose between a song mode or a chop mode, Iād go with the chop mode
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Iāll be more worried when they get rid of boxed copies of Office. Thatās the canary in the OSAAS coalmine 
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Boxed needs Microsoft accounts to activate so Iām guessing itās only a matter of time.
What I would Love On the Digitakt is the ability to chop samples, maybe able to play the chops using a double press of chromatic mode. Able to cut a jazz loop for example and chop/slice and then play them as u please to record a sexy loop.
Also, song mode.