Richard

UK

Designer

It's partly a "branding" issue:

Microsoft and other large software companies have convinced many people in the UK - and many in authority - that buying anything else means buying "second best."

So, even for writing the occasional letter, people are convinced that they MUST have the very latest version of MS Office;

For tweaking a few photos, they MUST have the latest Photoshop; etc, etc.

This seems to be reinforced by the software used in schools - on preferential licences:

Here, youngster don't learn the principles; they learn how to use a particular version of a particular big-name software product.

Teachers, parents and children feel "insulted" when alternative lower cost or open source products are suggested.

Some other countries don't seem to suffer from such fragile egos:

In some countries, leading colleges and universities actually sponsor the development, localisation and use of open source software.

For example, last week I downloaded a nice version of Poseidon Technical Linux from Brazil.