ESCAPE VELOCITY

1 - Precisely the same as why M$ Office is still the choice in business. Because 90% of the functionality is in Open Office but because it is "free" and has little or no support is is deemed lower quality.
Now let's see what happens now that it has IBM and a pretty bow tired around it with Symphony!

2 - Great post, especially as this idea of the perception of lower quality or value is exactly what we see with application interface design. Put two identical applications (from a functionality standpoint) side by side, one with a well-designed interface and the other not. Ask users to rate the application quality after using the programs and the users will overwhelmingly choose the good UI. Common sense? Absolutely, but it underscores the importance of addressing the user experience when you build an application.

So...applicable to UI design, Linux and Notes. It is indeed nice to be in good company!

3 - I'm told that green grocers (i.e. shops selling fruit and vegtables)often sell identical produce at two different prices and the higher priced version sells as well as the cheaper version. It's not all down to the UI - it's partly human nature to want to acquire something perceived to be better.

4 - When it comes to UI, what MS learned long ago is that a pretty UI is often more valuable to a user than functionality. That's one of the key problems in Notes Application design that Chris and Nathan are trying to address. I can't thank them enough for the community focus they've generated around that (not to mention all the great tips). I've used Open Office at home (I haven't tried Symphony), and I can tell you that as of about a year ago, MS was winning the UI Design game on OO. From a functionality standpoint, the OO word processor was everything I could ever want, but it wasn't as slick looking as Word.

5 - @5 - Actually, Doug... no, I don't wonder why drugs cost so much?

Worst. Business model. Ever.

Abolish the FDA. Eliminate the oligopoly rents on the drug market.

6 - Some years back, I sat in a meeting with representatives from all doc control entities for <mega pharmacorp>. The parent was on a mission (FDA driven) to get all docs world wide int a single oc management system.

<mega pharmacorp> is a Notes customer so I suggested we look at Dom.Doc.

Sorry, but <mega pharmacorp> opted for Documentum.

Dom.Doc: infrastructure - paid for, in place, already supported. Cost per site to install d.d, something less than $25K.

Documentum: Whole new beast. No internal expertise, cost per site just to STARTwas $125K and we'd been told to expect more like $250K.

Reason? Dom.Doc is too cheap and can't possibly be 'enterprise ready'.

And you wonder why drugs cost so much?