Sigh, my experience is that academia is still divided on this one. A large, part, perhaps even the majority, support free software, use free software and unders

Sigh, my experience is that academia is still divided on this one. A large, part, perhaps even the majority, support free software, use free software and understand the basic importance of supporting it if possible over closed source alternatives so as to not be hopelessly dependant on an outside entity. But I've also met many professors who simple trust commercial proprietary software simply because it is enterprise and therefore professional and reliable. Also in this case I think Simon might feel more empathy towards the fellow business owner building a business around his expertise in mathematics...