Why do people act this way when you recommend free software?

Question

I often tell people who are having trouble with Microsoft Word that LibreOffice or OpenOffice are far better software packages. Both are open-source office suites that can be downloaded for free. They are capable of opening anything created in MS Office, exporting documents to PDF directly from the File menu (rather than from the print queue like MS Office 2010 does), and the websites for these office suites offer free users guides that explain how to do just about everything with these programs.

So why is it that when I recommend this free software that's better than Microsoft Word, is absolutely free and comes with free users guides people act as if I'm telling them they need to go out and spend $1000 on software?

Answer 1

people think that because the software is free it's not any good they think that if they pay a small fortune for it then it's great and better that the free software.

anyone who uses free software will know that this isn't always the case a lot of free software is as good and in some cases better than it's bought equivalent.

there will always be bad and good for both free and bought software, but this isn't the case for open office and libreoffice

as I've already said people think that if they pay for something they automatically think it's better than it's free equivalent

Answer 2

Probably just because they're Microsoft fan boys. Everything they hear in software means "buy", they never heard of the word "Freedom" or "Open Source" before. Believe me, I've done this countless times too.



Makes me angry that people put effort into making free comparable software that's better and smoother, only to have the people who buy commercial software that pay thousands just to ignore it when they can save or pocket that money.



Companies like Microsoft make a ton of money off people like this.

Answer 3

Open office is a great tool, I think people are just afraid to utilize things out of the ordinary... their social norm is probably Microsoft so they don't know what to do with something other than MS. There are lots of great tools out there but they are not as common to everyone so they are uncomfortable with changing...

Answer 4

Simply stupid and/or just afraid of anything 'non-standard'. You can't change these people.