I need to fill out a form from a local government office to get some information from them. They email me a PDF of the official form.

The form is a pure document, so I have to print it out, scribble answers on it (or feed it into a typewriter; remember those?), then either scan and email it back to them or jam it in a paper envelope, stick a stamp on it, and drop it in the snail mail.

How much nicer it would be if I could fill in what I needed using my computer keyboard and email it back.

I don't want to do this with Word, as that's a proprietary format, and the resulting document may not image in a way that makes it legally valid. (This is where we start pushing the Open Office formats.)

Here's another one:

OFBiz (previously known as Open For Business)

I've found that all MS products are easy to install and run, as long as nothing goes wrong. The moment something fails, you've got major pain to deal with. You're going to have to bring in someone with lots of acronyms after their name.

It's like a modern luxury car: Pretty and comfortable, but when it breaks, you're looking at an expensive visit to the dealer.