[bluGill]

Office has always been a subscription. They just made it obvious, as opposed to selling Office 4, Office 95, Office 97 with no indication that you were expected to buy the upgrade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Office for a long history of this if you care.

Most other software the same. With a subscription you can't keep and use the old version anymore, and you can't even keep using it if you stop paying (though there is often a free tier) with a subscription. However nothing has in practice changed except that they payment cycles are more predictable.

[AdamH12113]

This is not even remotely correct. Historically, Microsoft's biggest problem with Office was having to convince people to buy the new versions since the basic feature set was fairly complete. The file format upgrade in 2007 was the only real forced upgrade since you had to have it in order to read other people's files. I have a copy of Office 2010 that still works just fine and can read files produced by up-to-date Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

The same goes for many other pieces of software. People (especially home users) would buy software once and then keep using it until something justified an upgrade. Software subscriptions were historically a B2B thing and IIRC usually came with support packages to help justify the ongoing cost -- especially important in the pre-internet and early internet eras.

[wkjagt]

I have an old version (I don't remember which one) of Word running on Windows 3.11 on a 486 DX2-66.

[Dan42]

Beautiful. I had that exact computer model 30 years ago.

[bluGill]

Realistically it is close enough to correct. Your old version would still work, but you run into problems sticking with an old version because eventually someone will send you a doc from a newer version.

[alnwlsn]

>You can't keep and use the old version anymore

What do you mean? My Office 97 cd still works, the product key still works, and Clippy is still there. It's old, but no less functional than it was in '97.

[bluGill]

Edited the original... You can keep and use Office 97 as long as you want. However if you decide to stop paying for office365 you can no longer use it (or get the free version - I'm not sure what exactly happens)

[bevr1337]

Indeed, some professional software is now cheaper and more accessible to the individual consumer. Before Adobe went to the subscription model, I only had access through school programs and later through my newspaper's office. When Adobe inevitably released a new Photoshop version, my employer could easily swallow the price tag. It seems quaint thinking about how I drove across town to access software.