Buying Microsoft Office 365 with a product key or subscription

A few years ago, most of the people I knew who were using Microsoft Office products extensively saw the writing on the wall. Microsoft was going towards a subscription model and not a software purchase package. Well, that happened last year with the introduction of Office 365. Now you can buy the software with a subscription of $99 or a product key of $79. There are different offerings for prices and packages, based on what you need and how many devices. The good thing about this is that it eliminates that annoying authorization screen that sometimes popped up. But now users have to subscribe or purchase the product key yearly. And for people like me who are always ready for the next incarnation of a software product, it saves some money. With that money I am able to download Microsoft Office onto up to 5 devices. And, if I have a crash or need to re-install, I can do so online. This saves me having to look for the CD (which was always somewhere inconvenient) and/or the installation key (that I tried to write on the CD in permanent marker but didn't always). And if you remember how much Microsoft Office products cost in the past, it was a pretty penny. My school computer had it installed when I got it but I have other devices I wanted to use Office on. There is always a version for students and teachers but it does not include everything that I want and it is still around $100 for just one machine. The subscription program (and product key) includes all undates and SkyDive (Microsoft's version of the Cloud storage) for up to 20GB. So this new system is actually cheaper in the long run for me. But you need to look at the different variations of Microsoft Office 365 that you might use, what programs and how many devices. One size does not fit all. There is also the free alternative of using OpenOffice (found at OpenOffice.org). It is a free version that you can download from the Internet. It is a really good program for the price (again, free) and it is compatible with MS Office. I have found it to be glitchy at times though. I appreciate that it is open source software that anyone can use and tweak, if they want. But I am a dyed-in-the-wool Microsoft person. (Yes, yes. Apple people I hear you saying that iWork is great and people who have Apple think that the sun rises and sets with Keynote and it IS pretty good.) But the world out there is based on Microsoft Office (for now) and until than changes, I am going to give the new subscription program a 4 out of 5 for downloadability and multi-device use.