I updated my MacBook Pro, and now Excel and Word are locked up, telling me I need to subscribe for $100/year. I can’t remember when I bought Microsoft Office. What are my options? Buy the suite, or switch to Google Docs, or what? Are there other options? I tend to feel averse to subscription-model software.

If you can’t remember when you got it and/or your updated computer can’t run the version you have — and if you indeed need to run Office rather than use Google Docs or the excellent open-source OpenOffice — you should prepare to pay Microsoft something.

And if you really don’t need anything but the basics, no extra storage on OneDrive or any new feature Microsoft rolls out, then what you pay should probably be $140 for this one-time license.

I don’t perceive you need any of the more business-y or organizational tools like OneDrive, but if you do, that’s when you pay the subscription. I understand anyone’s reluctance to do so, but truly it is the appropriate model for to keep software that we value in existence.