So what? If she won't use something that costs 0p then it isn't worth anything to us, is it.
Sometimes, y'know, you get what you pay for.
(There's good and bad software, whether paid for or open source. In particular in the database arena I'm perfectly happy to recommend Access, SQL Server ... and MySQL, each for a suitable application, horses for courses.
However I have come across some utterly crap open source software, just like I've come across some utterly crap proprietory software. An advantage of open source software here is that you can see the source code, so you can confirm that it really is utter crap, you don't have to rely just on its behaviour to form that judgement.
Most of the open source software I've come across is neither totally wonderful nor utter crap, it's just a bit half-arsed and amateur - usable after a fashion most of the time, but you'd think twice about making it mission critical. I think that's what the kid reckoned to OpenOffice - she didn't want to spend time fighting the software that would be better spent deciding on the content of the coursework essay.)