It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

• capital expenditure (“capex”): buy it and own it. Then it’s something of value that you own.
• operational expenditure (“opex”): pay to get access for a while, renting.

Software, despite widespread pretence, is usually opex. Demonstrating “net realisable value” proves hard for many software projects. It means you have to find a buyer.

some things appear to be products but in fact are subscriptions. One sign of a product that is secretly a subscription is networking: if it connects to the internet, and thus to some server, it is likely to be a subscription rather than a product - even if the “product” itself claims otherwise (e.g., smart TVs that one day start showing ads).

a secret subscription is one in which the reliance on a server which you did not even know existed can render new expenses onto your continued use of the “product”.

https://calpaterson.com/printers.html