I use OpenOffice. It pisses me off that my teachers will not download OpenOffice or VLC media player. OpenOffice is more than adequate to complete any assignment for any associates level class, and is probably adequate for most other classes. I have been saving my OpenOffice files in word '93 format and have had no complaints.
My teacher last semester demanded the video project be able to play on Windows Media Player, which wont play pretty much any of the formats of modern recording devices. Windows movie maker wont edit the damn files either. I had to use my fiances mac to burn a DVD and mail it to him. It was ridiculous.
Meanwhile, Rick Scott, our wonderful Florida governor is trying to 'fix' our education problem by mandating colleges develop a "$10,000 degree" which will only function as a carrot on a stick when it saturates the educational program with a dumb-down, everyone has it, degree of no real value.
The problem with education is that we exploit our students. Whether it is requiring the use of unnecessary software, or the newest edition of a book with no new material (or online supplemental material that doesn't have any real value), the real problem is the nickles and dimes.
I'll never forget my 1st bachelor's level course at USF, where we had to buy a 'clicker' that allowed us to interact with the power point like we where the audience on who wants to be a millionaire, that we literally used in 2 classes, to answer 7 questions total, that wasn't part of our grade, for $50.
WTF.
Microsoft can suck it.
