Aren't you missing another solution?

One of the advantages of being an old hand is that I have several old computers, and - would you believe it - I've got a lot of functional old software and previous versions of stuff that are not generally in use.

This doesn't mean, if I want to use Office 2000 or some such that I have to start up an old box.

I've extracted HDD's from old computers, so I've either got the software on the original hard drives, accessible via SATA, or I have copies of drives on a terabyte EDD. Occasionally I use Word 2000 or Open Office 2 available on another drive.

Suppose you're worried about security, patches, updates, etc? Don't be. I've always got one computer permanently offline and I can work on that safely before, at the last minute, exporting my files then giving them a quick check with AVG or some such.

Suppose you're new to it all and haven't got the old version you want? One friend of mine went onto Ebay to buy an old computer which had an old game which most people have forgotten about. Often the old hardware has the sought after software available for a snip.

Eh?

RussXPD