The public has rejected software not from a very few "leaders" for so long, a few monopolies and near monopolies are all that's left. Monopolies maximize their profits - they owe that to their stockholders (coming soon to a Red Hat near you).

What the application vendors, such as Intuit (and Microsoft) see as maximizing their profits is to get away entirely from packaged product and the expensive upgrade process. The final solution is to offer their products as ASP (Application Service Provider) services. When they have accomplished that, they control not only the program, but hold the customer's data on their servers. Pay by the month/year or you're out of business.

When asked if that was the future of Microsoft products, Bill Gates responded, "I believe in the long run things will be architected that way".

Of course, universal broadband is a ways off, so boxed product (perhaps with an expiration and lease license) will be necessary for some time. The objective is to make the boxed product such a hassle it will be used only by those who have no other choice.

Intuit currently offers a number of ASP services, and I seem to recall tax preparation is one of them.