No, ‘cause I haven’t agreed to anything. 
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He didn’t know how contrary I can be! 
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For the artist familiar with Inkscape, Affinity, Adobe, the Glowforge is simple and easy, as all the details of electronics, G-codes, and any number of issues in Lasers under $10k are transparent in the Glowforge. The parts that is premium are not a concern for most such artists as that is where their skills have the most strength, and for many is a fee based use as well.
The premium service is mostly for folks who do not have such skills, and allows them to be productive with far less learning needed than for Adobe.
A fair number of us started using Glowforge when it was far worse with most problems and many more that are now all but disappeared. We have seen many issues solved, and expect that to continue, even for those that are not premium. As I understand it if the new trick helps you design in the GFUI it will be premium, but if it just makes the Glowforge work better it will be for everyone. If you have and are great with your outside software you need have no benefit from the GFUI design ability, and can pass it by with no issues.
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That’s not incorrect. It IS simple and easy…using the machine IS simple and easy. That’s doesn’t negate the need for creating the files to easily use it.
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to be fair, this is often one of my contention points with GF marketing. the machine itself is very simple and easy to use. but, as you say, creating the files is not necessarily easy.
and, to be blunt, there are still a few quirks in the GFUI file imports that don’t make it easy. for example, when i print to the universal, it “gets” clipping paths, while pulling in a PDF with a clipping path confuses the GFUI. it’s a fairly common design technique. and there’s the winding path error that some get out of some apps.
in the end, it’s a fairly simple machine to use, but making files that work can be anywhere from simple to very complicated. GF marketing sometimes implies that the very complicated is made simple. and it’s not simple in any laser cutter.
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What I understand is that most companies do one or the other, either charge a premium for the equipment and no or low subscription fees, or low upfront cost and a higher subscription fee, but not generally both. 10% of the purchase price annually is overboard.
The percentage of purchase price seems kind of non related in my opinion. The purchase price has to do with the design and production of the machine. The subscription is support for ongoing improvements to operations.
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¯\(ツ)/¯
the premium price was for the simplified, streamlined, and cleanly designed equipment (compared to what other offerings there were when GF was first announced and when it was first delivered).
you may disagree with that, but that’s my opinion (and i believe GF’s opinion). they never promised you these design features in the GFUI, so to expect them for free is, well, foolish IMO. you bought the machine not expecting them (at least if you researched you shouldn’t have), so the value proposition couldn’t have been too bad to you without the features of premium.
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I think that if you agree to disagree on agreeing to disagree, then you have actually agreed.
I have to admit that it has been awhile since the last time I really surveyed the market. So, I could be missing something but, I keep hearing that the Glowforge is “expensive” and, I wonder “compared to what?”
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But one person can’t decide for another that they have both agreed to disagree. 
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Do you agree that you have disagreed to either agree or disagree?
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I do. 
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Expensive compared to a Cricut/dye sub setup/craft machine/anything sold at Joann. Not at all expensive compared to a Trotec/Epilog/industrial laser.
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I wish there was a Premium à la carte option where we could purchase specific features. For the little home-crafters like myself I could see myself subscribing all year round at a lower amount even though I only use my machine maybe for 1-2 cuts a month, but at $50 thats just too much for me even though I really love the tracer feature because I am just not that fluent with the software… Please consider for us little guys glowforge team and @dan. Thank you!
Agreed.
In my particular case, I have absolutely no use for the art and font library (as impressively massive as it is) or the “Design of the Month”. I create all of my own imagery and designs from scratch and already own a large, curated collection of typefaces that I have amassed over many years.
However, I did find myself using the various “one-click tools” quite a bit. Frankly, some of those tools are so basic, they really should be built-in to the GFUI. That being said, I would happily pay $5/month for those features alone.
I trust that @dan and the rest of the GF team is listening to this feedback.
Well said-- really hope so too! I believe they are good people and will see it makes more business sense. Something of something is better than nothing of nothing, I cannot imagine too many people will pay $600/year…
I’m not paying 50.00 a month! I would be hesitant to pay 10! 
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