Yes, I totally agree. I’m not arguing that the file deletion situation wasn’t an issue. I was not at all going to be happy about that one. I was just countering the notion that this was going to quickly blow over for Cricut. I think they’re doing fine, but they’ve got some very heavy competition (as GF does now) and it’s just as easy for someone to get a Silhouette machine instead and not have to worry about their limits. And these types of moves make everyone a little less comfortable with cloud-based tools.
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To me, removing files after 30 days is an inconvenience, but fairly minor. Limiting how much you can actually use your machine is pretty major. My wife was showing me some designs that she has used on Cricut where one project was more than 20 svg uploads. Since GF does not include any substantial design tools in their software, people seem to do most or all of their design outside GF. As a result, deleting old projects doesn’t seem like such a big deal.
Honestly, I wasn’t even aware that a 30 day limit even existed. Premium was launched right before my wife and I bought our GF, and I hadn’t actually seen any discussion of this as a change. But even then, it appears that GF tried to honor their word in regards to grandfathering people in, which is generally what I was responding to in the first place. That seems like a much better approach than the one taken by Cricut.
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This is very true, however in my opinion those attitudes are based on misinformation about being able to continue using their machines… coupled with entitlement. And, my opinion of your truth changes nothing. 
I agree.
One of the biggest issues with the file deletion is that you lose all of your settings and layout. GF heard us when we complained about this and allowed us to download files with settings. And then they grandfathered us in. I have no complaints about that. I think if you run a business with a GF and your files are deleted each month, it becomes more than an inconvenience, but that’s not something I need to deal with.
I mostly agree with you. I think the people who were “hardest hit” were those who came on board after the features were introduced but before the premium subscription went into place. Many people were talking about using the features without specifying that they would be premium and there was a lot of confusion. But, yeah, none of that changes the fact that people are mad and telling others about it.
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All of us here are also speaking from a place in the past where we got by with very few if ANY of the features and improvements that we have now, so we can compare being ‘without’ and now ‘with’. We waited, sometime patiently sometimes not, figured out hacks and ways of getting around stuff. Newer users have no concept of that…not their fault…they just have no context with what time has brought about. They paid the big bucks and they think it should come with all the fixin’s.
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marketing and truth have a very shaky relationship. both from the positive and from the negative side.
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Nope. On early models, it was: if you removed the mainboard cover, there was a micro-USB-connector through which you could access the “innards”, but they stopped populating that bit of the mainboard shortly after this was documented by the guys from OpenGlow…
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No, hadn’t heard that…too bad. I thought they had actually gotten one running under their own code at one point? (Maybe not, I just thought I’d heard that.)
i think he got some very minimal workings, but it took a lot of trial and error and reworking of electronics to get there. and it still wasn’t enough.
again, if GF goes belly up, i suspect someone will decide it’s worth taking it to the next level and maybe figure something out. but i wouldn’t count on it. and i would count on it requiring you to do some work on your own machine to make it work. probably enough to put it out of all but the makeriest makers who are into modding electronics.
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@JBrinkman , you made me pause my Netflix to read your post. That’s a rarity. Thanks for the insightful conversation starter.
Perspective is huge here. Folks who have been with this enterprise from 9/24/2017 might have a totally different view on this from recent purchasers.
They deliver a basic laser that is well-priced for what it does. They have added many features that aren’t Premium that make this a very usable laser for folks who don’t have the time/experience/desire to manage the hardware tweaking needed for cheaper options. You feed a Basic Glowforge a good design and it does what it needs to. There rest is making it easier in the GFUI.
Pro and Plus are different price/features metrics that I do not have experience with.
The cloud system is evolving as a technology that we all use. We are continually adapting and judging its value, but it’s got some mojo that is very powerful. I’m happy to part of the New Age.
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Thanks. Glad to add my voice to the conversation. It is easy to fall into the trap of “not valuable to me” turning into “not valuable”. I have had this discussion many times with users of an Open Source product I built a company around many years ago. Each company targets a particular market segment and crafts features and pricing that should be valuable to that segment. Every feature is not intended for me, and pricing is one way that companies signal who their target audience is.
As for the cloud, I think it is clear that it is becoming a central part of our lives and allows product developers like myself to scale our products to millions of customers. People think they want software installed on their local machine because they falsely believe it gives them some level of control. Having lived on the other side for many years, I can tell you that supporting a customer base with many different product versions is very very expensive. I am glad that GF went the direction they did with cloud based software. It has it’s downsides, but one of the upsides is that I am always running the latest, most secure version of the software, and they can deliver everything to me at a lower cost.
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What I meant was that putting basic free functions into premium as cricut has done had proven backlash and that backlash is not worth it.
I am aware that for many people gf premium is indeed worth the price. Like wow the march file is gorgeous.
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I was taking about how cricut demonstrated that there is massive backlash to putting free basic features into a premium plan and companies like gf can use this as a case study and maybe not do that.
I am not against the current gf premium. I don’t use it personally but I’m sure it’s worth it for many people.
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Read my replies. I wasn’t talking about gf premium not being worth it.
I agree with this, even if I disagree with the type of control being referred to. In the era of being nickel and dimed to death, the control that I desire is not having to pay a growing subscription for extra features or marketing gimmicks that I won’t use.
I hear y’all, it’s not required “yet”
In the end, all I want is the capability to download the “compiled” files and send them to my Glowforge without the company tracking what I do with their hardware, there are legitimate concerns about them taking down files over DCMA, or having to worry about network hiccups. I’m not going to hold my breath for this feature because it quickly opens the possibility for people to bypass their cloud software.
FWIW, I will take my copy of Lightroom 6 to the grave.
Waiting for the Glowforge sponsored conformists to come and shut down this opinion piece. 
It won’t be shut down because of your opinion. A community member could choose to flag it if your language is inappropriate or if you are passing on misinformation.
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