I have been in the software development field for 20 years and running my own consulting practice - GARA Systems - for the past 11 years.

Over the past couple of years I have been actively advocating free software to my clients. Since that time I have done many installations of MySQL, OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird and more. My clients have realized thousands of dollars in savings because of the switch.

At this point there are not many software categories where I still advocate proprietary software. One proprietary packages that I do continue to recommend is QuickBooks. I just haven't found an open-source package that is as robust and easy-to-use as QuickBooks. I am certainly willing to try any new suggestions that you might have.

In any case, my clients are finding the switch easier then they thought. Users seem to adapt to OpenOffice and other free alternatives more readily then they, and even I, expect.