Birth of the Subscriptions

I was reading this article by Edgar Alvarez on Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/22/microsoft-office-365-students/ so I felt like I should give my opinion on the up and coming trend of program subscriptions.  I don't like it.  Whenever I spend money on a product, I would like to own the product itself, not "own" the privilege of using the product.  It's similar to the difference between renting or buying a house.  There are benefits of both, but bottom line leasing is renting the house and buying is investing in the house.  Buying a house is better.  Buying software is better than renting.  Buying a subscription could lead to buying software that I can't really afford.  Short term you do save money, but long term you do not.  But the reason why I don't like subscriptions is I do not own things that I'm paying for.  From what I understand subscriptions are getting more and more popular as well.  There are rumors that operating systems are going to become subscription based.  I'm not looking forward to that.