I agree, to a point.

This past year I've been introduced to Linux and open-source software and I love it! I'm actually in the process of changing our lyrics projection software from Luminous (a great little program that unfortunately hasn't been updated in 2 years), to OpenLP.

I do believe though that we still need some paid software in Churches, for the main reason that it's what everyone's used to using. Microsoft Office is one example.
While OpenOffice is very similar in looks and functionality to MS Office, it hasn't quite nailed opening .docx, .xlsx and pptx files properly (at least not in the versions I've been using - haven't tried v3 yet). Having said that, I'm already considering moving the Church emails from Outlook to Thunderbird...

A lot of times when we talk about Free software it really isn't free. The license may be free but there is more to software than a license cost. Especially for an organization like a church or ministry.

For example, there are support costs. MS Office isn't free. But, people are familiar with it. If OpenOffice is used in it's place there is the cost of training people how to use it. Time = Money after all. If the person up makes sure OpenOffice is up to date on computers at the church leaves there is the cost of training or finding a replacement. That cost is lower is MS Office because the pool of people who can/will do it is deeper.

There is support for applications. For example, a lot of church use Media Shouts support. How often do you find open source projects with that level of support? I'm not talking about mailing list or forum support. I'm talking about the type a Pastor could use with someone who will patiently help him. There is a cost to that.

Free isn't really free.

Then there are things like usability. I've spent the last 2 weeks evaluating 2 task management apps. One that's free and one that costs $40. The one that costs is a much more usable product. Part of this is due to the nature of the products. The one that costs has to be sold for the company to justify making and selling it. If it doesn't sell they loose money and go under. That means they need to concentrate on usability a lot.

Many open source projects suffer from bad usability. This is in part because the developers often don't care. It's, also, in part because good coders are usually not good with usability.

When you throw this into a cost effective bank, if an application is more usable and this saves you a lot of time it can be worth (cost effective) to pay for it.

I'm a fan of free software and have switched most of the applications I use to free ones. I just want to point out that free isn't really free. Especially, when we are dealing with non-geeks.

I agree that openoffice has some issues with MS Office formates, but i just found another free office suite that is avaiable for windows, mac and linux. It is provided free by IBM and it is called lotus symphony, it was designed to compete directly with microsoft office and it is geared towards bussiness use (meaning it probably handles MS formates better) I have not tried it but I plan to as soon as I can download it. Also I don't know if it open source or not ( as long as its free and avaliable for Linux I don't really care) Check it out here:

symphony.lotus.com

When considering the deployment of any FOSS solution you still need to do your homework and plan out the full life cycle of the solution.

This should include extensive pre-deployment research into the FOSS app. Who uses it. Who do we share it with. What does it have to be compatible with. You would do this with any app you're considering no matter how much you pay for it.

How long will this solution be in place. When planning a major expansion project you may want to use a project planner. Does the length of the project warrant spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on MS project or would a FOSS app do the job necessary?

UX. One of the big buzz words I'm hearing in the business world is User eXperience. How to make the app easy to use for the end user. This is again something that is important in both the free app and pay app world. Consider the migration from Office 2003 to Office 2007. There is such a significant change in the user interface that many users (including myself) will want to go back to 2003. Try explaining to a church office staff how they need to save a Word file as Office 97-2003 "dot-doc" file when ever they want to send the file to their mission team in Peru. This will play heavily into your training and support plans.

Support is usually the number one reason people say they don't consider FOSS apps, but the reality is that many of these apps are supported and documented better then their pay app counter parts; if you are looking at mature apps and not someones weekend home brew. I have used ASSP for spam filtering for years and would argue that the documentation for this app exceeds many pay app equivalents. And yes I would agree that the mailing list is not the best source of support when things "break" after deployment, but since this is such a mature app (7 years old as a FOSS) the reality is it doesn't just "break" without some user intervention.

Another key part of planning your app deployment is who will be supporting it. The summer volunteer student is not a very well planned out deployment, no matter how much you pay for the app. Many staff IT people are experienced in FOSS apps, and even more contract IT people are recommending and deploying FOSS apps. If your IT person is not at least experimenting with FOSS apps, you may need to consider if it's time to expend your IT resources.
And finally the reality is that Churches do the majority of their "important" stuff on Sundays and many IT shops are not open when the "critical" support is needed. Support contracts with software vendors often have an 8x5 limit with premiums for 8x7 and 24x7.

So the important thing to do is PLAN your software deployment. For the same reason you don't run to BestBuy and get the cheapest projector on the shelf when your church decides to start doing I-Mag, you shouldn't run to FOSS apps because they are free.

God calls us to be good stewards of the money people give to the church, so for me that means doing my due diligence in researching the right solution, no matter how much or how little it costs.