paying for software

Found myself paying for software recently (Office 2008 for Mac) which (honestly) would have been unheard of some years ago. I thought of software companies as monolithic entities which didn't need or deserve my support, with the exception of some great shareware ( Graphic Converter, TidyUp!, and MP3 Rage being several which come to mind immediately).

It's a (sorta) weird thing for me to think about, since I'd been so lackadasical about it in the past. Didn't mind paying for hardware, but was always so ambivalent about software.

Guess aging is doing something to me (see post about preferring to buy CD's vs downloading, even when the downloads are legal).

Footnote : I still have limits. Everyone I know (who's serious about photography) loves LightRoom. I can't get over the fact it's $300, so still doing lousy things using Graphic Converter instead....