I agree and have been using StarOffice/OpenOffice since they were released to the public.

I find it a constant battle at work because our "standard applications" are MS Office.

I make it a point to do documents, presentations, and some spreadsheets using OO. I always save them in MS format but also always put a footer announcement that that states "This document created with OpenOffice, the free alternative to Microsoft Office."

It is amazing how many people ask me about it then and wonder how it can make compatible documents. Now that Sun has an ODF format add-on for MS Office, I can save in ODF too.

I think I have around 100 converts at this point. When you tell them they can trade docs with OO Linux, Mac, Solaris, and Windows they really like it.

My opinion is that OO should put effort towards making their ODF format super safe and then let the federal government lead that into the mainstream. Security is getting more press every day.