I know this is my first post since its been years but wow. I can definitely sympathize with those who are only see change as a bad thing, but I think if you look at the big picture not all changes should be shunned. The only person where it might be a break even or small loss is if you only run a single machine, but it's far more likely you have a laptop to go with it so it's instant win. Even for the individual with just one or two computers, the benefit is there.

To buy office for those same 5 machines with conventional licenses you're talking over $1000 which will have to be paid again at some point for the next release (should you upgrade).

Well, with the new way of doing things for around $300 for three years you can fund 5 five machines and when the new release comes out you just drop the old for the new. How often does a new office pack come out? Every 2-3 years. Can anyone else but me do the math? Ok.maybe you don't like subscriptions.but let's look at this constructively. Microsoft is providing 5 licences for $99 a year. What does a license of Office 2010 Home and Business run.~$250? What about Pro.$450? That's for a single license. While I can defintely understand why some of you are pissed off, when you look at dollars and cents this is actually to your benefit. That's the carrot the stick is the price hike and additional restrictions on perpetual licenses. The $99 a year subscription lets you use Office 2013 on up to five PCs, and those licenses float you can decommission old PCs and move licenses to new ones as necessary. Rather, it's yet another incentive to buy an Office 365 Home Premium subscription. The underlying reason for the change is almost certainly not any direct revenue generated by additional sales.

Microsoft office 2013 pro provantage