This blog entry from Bring It On! hits the nail on the head.
Here’s a thought. If OpenOffice.org wants me to quit spending thousands of dollars on a commercial product, they have to compete on more than just price. Price isn’t the deciding factor in which suite I buy. Quality and enhanced productivity are. Even if the cost of Office Pro works out to a few hundred dollars a year per user over it’s lifetime, that’s less than a dollar a day. In real world terms that means my employees pay for Office in about 2 minutes each day thanks to the extra features.
This is essentially what I was trying to convey the other day. OpenOffice.org, and other free MS Office competitors like Lotus Symphony, aren’t going to get widespread adoption just because they’re free.