I'm a Dropbox user with 5gb of space and while I have installed Google Drive, I see no real reason to switch from Dropbox. First I can earn more space on Dropbox if needed with more referrals and second Google doesn't have an iOS app available at launch (however it's coming soon).
I like may others was using the free version of growl prior to 1.3. When 1.3 came out I paid the $2 and upgraded as I found the product useful and enjoyed the work the developers put in. Now don't get me wrong, I could have just as easily compiled it on my machine and continued to use it, but that would defeat the purpose of continuing to support something I use daily.
With that said, I will say that in 1.3 the roll-up notifications was a true pain to get used to, as there was no way to turn them off. However this has been resolved in 1.3.1 and I urge anyone who didn't enjoy 1.3 to give 1.3.1 a chance.
Unfortunately this doesn't matter given how far Libre Office has come since splitting off. I mean Libre Office already stated they have mobile version in the works, not to mention the other improvements they've brought to the project causing a lot of Linux distributions to switch to Libre Office as there default word processing suite.
A little too late for Oracle and the Apache Foundation in my opinion.
It's not wrong to approach former co-workers for a new venture. With that said, reaching out to the former employer and giving them a heads up can and usually will cause issues whether you meant for them or not.