Comment by hiAndrewQuinn

Well, you're right it isn't realistic, that's why everything is a SaaS nowadays. That's what the second order effects of this kind of expectation generates.

>Other than as confirmation of payment

This is the wrong way around, imo. Confirmation of payment is like the #1 problem a business has to solve. If the business can't reliably turn a profit by running their software on your machine, then they will run it on their own machines, no matter how much it degrades the user experience. The end result is a hollowed out market for anything local and not offered totally for free, which sadly and ironically excludes a great deal of valuable software.