I'm confused about what the new license system means for me

[phpempire]

Officially we are not guaranteeing any specific future development on legacy licenses (which is why the warning exists), so @Richard G is correct to say don't assume anything past what is functional now (CentOS 9, Debian 12 / Ubuntu 22).

@zEitEr is correct that going with a CentOS fork like AlmaLinux takes you to 2032 -- a little more than 7 years away.

Even if it ends there, that means these legacy products would have had an approximate 30-year run -- something virtually unheard of in the software world. We understand any disappointment, but we ask you to remember: no one else would have delivered this much value -- no one.

What our customers received goes far beyond what is typical for software, and we're proud of that.

This is illegal. You paid thousands of dollars for a lifetime license, now you regret it and are forcing the user to switch back to a monthly license in various ways.

 

[ericosman]

This is illegal. You paid thousands of dollars for a lifetime license, now you regret it and are forcing the user to switch back to a monthly license in various ways.

Nope not illegal, the lifetime is always for a products life, you can keep using it, but it shall not get any updates.
e.g. if you bought Office 2003, you can still use it, just no updates....
It's not like Microsoft says "Oh you bought it in 2003, here is Office365 'free of use' for you"