Fortunately Microsoft Office isn’t fully subscription yet, but with how much they’re pushing Office365 it’s not too surprising that people don’t seem to realize this. You can still buy a permanent license from MS directly (with some digging around to get to the correct page) or from 3rd party websites. Only downside is it locks you into the current version of Office, but for the average user (me) that’s not too much of a big deal - I can’t recall them releasing any major must have features over the past 10 years.
Just wait a few more years - Windows 11 will probably be the last “desktop” license you’ll be able to buy. Microsoft really, REALLY wants the next OS to be Windows 365 Cloud OS, run on Azure (of course) and available only via subscription.
I don’t think this will quite happen. People will lose their minds if they need to pay a subscription to use the OS that comes with their newly purchased laptops.
Unfortunately, I recall thinking the same thing about Photoshop before Adobe switched to the subscription model, but here we are.
Adobe made the switch to subscription in 2013, and their revenue the following year grew to about $4 billion. It has continued to increase every year, often by double digit percentages - revenue for 2022 was $17.6 billion, an increase of almost $2 billion over 2022. And 93% of that revenue is from subscriptions.
On a more positive note, maybe a Windows subscription model is what will finally lead to the Year of the Linux Desktop…
