This was their response.

When they ask me what I did for a living and said we run an OSS consulting business it was very common for the other person to say “Oh, you mean like Open Office”.

I’d rather talk about golf, politics and/or women than software when off duty.

The most striking thing for me recently was at a friends 40th party. When answering the compulsory “So, what do you do then?”, the most frequent response was “Oh, you mean like Open Office”.

I was pretty surprised by the number of non-technical people who were either familiar with, or a user of, OpenOffice.org.

oh… you go round at party’s asking whether they use open office? hmmm… you really do have this open source thing pretty bad!

1. Glazed over eyes and a rapid departure.
2. Delighted smile and you have found a new friend.

The most striking thing for me recently was at a friends 40th party. When answering the compulsory “So, what do you do then?”, the most frequent response was “Oh, you mean like Open Office”.

I was pretty surprised by the number of non-technical people who were either familiar with, or a user of, OpenOffice.org.