I didn't downvote but, pretty much every academic in the CS/physics/stats/math I've met uses LaTeX. Even a bunch of linguists I know use LaTeX.

It's definitely not perfect--I really wish there were something better--but for writing technical academic papers, it seems like far and away the best.

Only someone not related to typesetting can say that LaTeX is dead. Exactly the opposite is true. Even though there are good alternatives these days such as InDesign and (I hate to say that:) MS Word (which now has a much better formula editor and OpenType Math fonts), great developments are taking place, for example LuaTeX. Not directly LaTeX but TeX: I have built a high quality database publishing system based on LuaTeX: http://speedata.github.com/publisher/

You write unjustified aggressive phrases, which are clearly at odds with lots of people. That's why I consider you a troll and downvote you.

Go and find some download stats for some LaTeX distributions. LaTeX is still used in academia everyday, and I conject that it is used to generate docs in business too.

LaTeX is about as far from dead as the desktop computer.

LaTeX gets plenty of use in academic circles. Research papers, theses, etc.