I worked in environments where MS Office and Star/Open/Apache/Libre Office was used, and Tbird was installed in addition to whatever Windows email client. I’m not even discussing other pieces of software, these are enough to make a point, I think. There was hardly a person who prefered the alternatives. These tools were perceived as slow, unreliable, uncooperative and the lack of compatibility, document-wise, only strengthened these opinions.

As for “posts scaring people away…” Do you seriously think that whatever people write in the Internet is enough to convince big corps, governments and other massive groups of recipients? Come on…

I disagree with your take on corpo environment. If what you’re saying would be true, then it’d be far more profitable for corpo to hire a bunch of Linux-oriented technicians and thus save costs of IT layer. But corpos don’t do that. You’re suggesting a paradox - a body that relies on cost-cutting and making everything as profitable as possible, that also is ok with wasting money on something that’s allegedly easy to replace.

Again: you’re doing what Linux/FOSS community usualy does. Instead of acknowledging the points and asking “what can be done to make this work”, you’re saying that your choice is better, good enough to work no matter what environment, what userbase is there, all consequences and the contradictory evidence be damned. It’s users that need to change their ways, certainly not Linux/FOSS.

This might work as Apple’s strategy, but it won’t as hell work in case of Linux/FOSS. 😉