Pay a little now, pay a lot later

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/node/1666

It’s often prohibitively expensive to alter a company’s computing infrastructure once it’s been established, so choosing well from the first day is critically important.

If a company standardizes on the OpenDocument format for their word processing files, they can pick and choose the applications used to create and edit them—and later change their mind if something better comes along. On the other hand, selecting Microsoft’s DOC format gives the choice of... Word.

Maybe the key is not Open Source software as such but rather open standards and open file formats. This is the thing that provides consumers with freedom and choice.