Once a software work is done by others, than you DO NOT need to re-do that again. You will not be wasting your valuable time on something which had already been WELL DONE . As we will be entering the 21st century, there will be a change in the way that you get software for your use. Buying software may become a thing of the past. You only need to buy good hardware, it is worth spending money on the hardware and get the software from internet.
Important point is that it is the computer hardware which is doing bulk of the work .
Hardware is the real work horse and software is just driving it. Design and manufacturing of computer chips is a advanced technology. It is a very complex process, capital intensive, requires large investments in plant and production machines which deal with 0.18 micron technology. Current technology uses micro-electronics of about 0.35 micron using aluminum as conductors, 0.25 micron sizes using copper as conductors of electrons. In near future the technology of 0.10 micron with copper and even nano-electronics will be used to make computer chips.