> Since I am seriously considering switching from proprietary to the
> open source software as much as possible as a matter of principle
> (fuck monopoly capitalism), I would really appreciate any feedback,
> based on experience rather than opinions, as to the quality of these
> products.
Depending of what your use/requirements are you can be fully satisfied with a totally free (as in FSF/GNU) system, slightly frustrated, or find that mostly useless.
My requirements, as a translator, are to deliver files that offer the same "experience" in terms of layout/looks as the original that was given to me for translation. I find myself in the "slightly frustrated" because anything that has to do with MS compatibility basically sucks. It is like trying to hit a moving target.
I find that most of my colleagues, especially those who favor free systems, need to keep a running copy of MS Office to check the files before delivery, but besides for that, pretty much all the tools of the trade can be found in their free form.
As for how much that costs, well it is free if you don't want to pay with your time, but any free system needs people to try new features, run QA tests before release, do some localization, write documentation, so it is really up to users to give back what they can.
Jean-Christophe Helary