<p>OpenOffice is free. <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.openoffice.org/</a></p>
<p>I personally dislike OpenOffice. The program itself feels unpolished in comparison to Office 2004. However, you can try Apple's iWorks, which includes Pages, a word processor, and Keynote, a PowerPoint like application. Keynote is excellent, but I have yet to become affectionate with Pages.</p>
<p>If you are really "on the limb" in terms of money, I suppose I could give one of my three student licenses for Office 2004.</p>
<p>Having microsoft programs is very useful in my opinion, at least word, excel, and powerpoint. Teachers will sometimes ask you to e-mail files to them in these formats, or you might get data, documents, etc. in these formats. I don't know what I'd do without office.</p>
<p>This is a link to a notebook forum where you can find really great coupons for various types of laptops. When I finally buy one, I will likely use this:</p>