I use open office at work, and I spend all my time talking, in meetings, or creating content (slides, memos, doc).  So much for being a coder.  Executive life sucks, except for the time off with pay.

But I am watching indicators of change out there, here is another one:
http://www.neoseeker.com//news/story/5436
IBM not going to vista.  Saves them vista and office costs, which total over $1k a person last time I checked.  I am sure they could have negoiated less, but what the heck.

MSFT is charing too much for office, given how good open office is, and how free it is.  $400 and up is too much for a college bound student - hell you can buy a laptop for that now or a good tower with a printer.  That would be akin to paying $4k for office when I went to college.  Price compression on software is easier than hardware - economies of scale are higher.

I don't think college students, programmers in india or china are going to pay it.  And its my firm belief that these 3 forces govern the future of technology.

What to do?  Switch to free.  Itunes is free, and apple has made over a billion $ to date from it.  And it cost a fraction to develop  compared to Vista. (that billion is in music sales. Ipod sales, even more.)

MSFT won't do it, its too radical.  They will offer a hobbled version for free, but too late to matter. Its easier to use open office than the hobbled version.  And more people every day are learning that.