I'll volunteer my own example: a few years a go a friend of mine who operates a very profitable cable contracting business was bemoaning the fact that he was going to have to lay out $400+ per computer in order to use Microsoft Office and whatever modern OS it required to run efficient in order to expand his computer network for his employees. I made the suggestion that he look into using Open Office on whatever OS he was already using. He did, he quickly found that he could adapt to it, and eventually Open Office replaced every copy of Microsoft Office that he had. Furthermore, he now requires all contractors and subcontractors that he deals with to submit their paperwork in Open Office formats rather than MS Office formats. Sure he can read the MS Office formats no problem, but the point is that he's now an advocate for this software and since it is free, easy to install and no more difficult to learn than MS Office then it isn't an unreasonable requirement for his employees and contractors to comply with.

One of his sub-contractors eventually seperated and started his own contracting business in a related field, and he now uses Open Office as well, and is also requiring that all employees and sub-contractors submit their work in Open Office format.

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