Free software battles Microsoft Office for market share

Free software was once almost exclusively borne of a grass-roots effort - with an anti-Microsoft bent - seeking alternatives to paid software. Things have changed rapidly in the last two years, with free software now gaining legitimacy in both consumer and business circles.

Pierre Avignon is no pirate, but he does not believe in paying for software if he can help it. Rather than install Microsoft's market-leading Office suite, he opted for Symphony - a free suite of compatible office tools (in effect a rebadged version of OpenOffice) that he downloaded from IBM's website.

"It is free. It is a great deal," says Avignon, a 43-year-old graphics designer.

Growth in the availability of broadband internet access has spawned a new type of free software - programs that its developers host on their own servers and have designed to foster collaboration among users by making documents easy to share.

Google and smaller internet companies such as Zoho offer free office suites over the web that run in a browser - so-called software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.

You can't set up mass mailings or run sophisticated data analysis using most free, web-based software, says Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst with Nucleus Research. But she says few people actually use such features.

Google Docs and other free programs are looking increasingly attractive to businesses keen to cut the cost of software licence spending and renewals.

"Ninety percent of the users don't need all the functionality that Office provides," Wettemann said. "Ninety percent of people basically just use Excel to make lists."

More demanding users who don't want to pay may look to Symphony and its cousin, OpenOffice, a larger package developed by a non-profit group that also includes a database program and drawing software.

Rob Tidrow, a computer programmer who has written several guides to using Microsoft Office, says that Symphony does not lack many features that even power users of Office need.

Tidrow, who just finished writing "IBM Lotus Symphony for Dummies," said he installed the IBM program on computers that his two children use, but it is also robust enough to meet the needs of schools and small businesses.

"They can save hundreds, perhaps thousands, by using free software," he said.

Kirk Gregersen, a Microsoft product manager, says that cost is generally not a prime deciding factor for Office customers. Surveys show that price is generally the eighth most important factor, he said.

However, being free does have its problems. "As soon as you say it's free, (people) feel less comfortable," says Avignon, who has encouraged friends to try Symphony but has won few converts. "They say 'What's the catch?'"