AT.. have you tried Open or Libre Office?  I own MS Office but have not installed because Libre does the trick.  Adobe's model does work for individuals if that individual is a working profession l who uses multiple products and/or upgrades regularly.

I am another that has taken out a subscription with Adobe, I got a new camera an found I needed Lightroom 5 to support it's newer RAW format. The deal does not seem too bad at the moment as I get Photoshop as well fotr under 9 pounds a month. Time will tell!
 
I was more concerened by Adobe dropping Vista support.  Even their converter to make the newer formats backwards compatible needs 7 or 8. That means I am now reluctantly doing my photo work on my DAW, I dont feel inclined to update the other box to Windows 8 at the moment.

The trouble with being constantly up to date is that updates frequently break an old trusted workflow that you depend upon, especially if it involves 3rd party extensions or plugins. For instance I depend upon a seamless sync between Outlook 2010 and Google Calendars using Google's own sync tool. When I looked into switching to Office 365 upon its release, it turned out that there was no Google sync tool for that. If I'd upgraded without checking then my whole business setup, which depends on that Outlook/Google sync, would have been unworkable. And Google is frequently changing its API which means that a 3rd party online app I depend on, which interfaces with and extracts data from Google Calendars, suffers from periodic problems unless the author keeps on top of development.

As usual, customers have it in their power to put a stop to this. If nobody took up the subscriptions, software companies would soon revert to the old way. but sadly it won't happen because of those that just have to have the latest, greatest version.

sharke
The trouble with being constantly up to date is that updates frequently break an old trusted workflow that you depend upon, especially if it involves 3rd party extensions or plugins. For instance I depend upon a seamless sync between Outlook 2010 and Google Calendars using Google's own sync tool. When I looked into switching to Office 365 upon its release, it turned out that there was no Google sync tool for that. If I'd upgraded without checking then my whole business setup, which depends on that Outlook/Google sync, would have been unworkable. And Google is frequently changing its API which means that a 3rd party online app I depend on, which interfaces with and extracts data from Google Calendars, suffers from periodic problems unless the author keeps on top of development.

I know what you mean. I always wait until all my current projects are done and paid for before upgrading because half my plugins stop working every time Adobe updates. Granted, the patches are usually ready within few days but can screw you bigtime if in middle of project

paulo
As usual, customers have it in their power to put a stop to this. If nobody took up the subscriptions, software companies would soon revert to the old way. but sadly it won't happen because of those that just have to have the latest, greatest version.

That is a big assumption on your part. Many of us upgrade out of need. If people upgrading because they "have to have latest, gratest version" was so reliable, Adobe would simply have kept status quo and actually made more money. This model actually forces those who would have been fine without upgrade go that route anyway. Even those who have tried to get by with last packaged versions are starting to upgrade because of compatability issues and advances in file formats not supported in old version. Not to mention we are in an industry where collaboration is often necessary.

sharke
The trouble with being constantly up to date is that updates frequently break an old trusted workflow that you depend upon, especially if it involves 3rd party extensions or plugins. 

This! 
 
I committed an error last fall and finally upgraded my OS after 3 years on the original OS I had on my machine. Because I wanted to upgrade certain plug-ins and my old OS wasn't supported.
 
Turns out that, despite being compatible the newer OS, there was quite a drop in performance in Logic.
 
Never again! I intend to keep my next machine completely out of the upgrade loop save for minor updates, even if it eventually means scarifying a few 3rd party plugs.
 
A subscription model would ruin that plan. 
 
Did I mention my brother-in-law still runs Pro Tools TDM 6.x on a G4/OS9 in his commercial studio? If it ain't broke...

dubdisciple

paulo
As usual, customers have it in their power to put a stop to this. If nobody took up the subscriptions, software companies would soon revert to the old way. but sadly it won't happen because of those that just have to have the latest, greatest version.

That is a big assumption on your part. Many of us upgrade out of need. If people upgrading because they "have to have latest, gratest version" was so reliable, Adobe would simply have kept status quo and actually made more money. This model actually forces those who would have been fine without upgrade go that route anyway. Even those who have tried to get by with last packaged versions are starting to upgrade because of compatability issues and advances in file formats not supported in old version. Not to mention we are in an industry where collaboration is often necessary.

The point remains that if everybody  simply refused to "upgrade" to a subscription version, what would they do ? Same applies to just about any product you care to think of and not just in terms of subscriptions. If people just point blank refused to pay X price for just about whatever product you care to name, the supplier would soon bring the price down as their alternative would be zero sales.

In theory a complete boycott would work but that is not what I addressed. I addressed the assumption that those of us using it do so becaus we have to have the latest version. This is simply not true. As for a boycott, I'm not personally in position to pass up money in the hope that everybody joins me. I have had at least 5 assignments for companies this year that required current version of software. I would love to meet the person charismatic enough to get an entire industry to boycott their bread and butter.

backwoods
More companies that do it the more "acceptable" it becomes too which is annoying.

If consumers don't subscribe it's no longer a viable option.
 
Rocky