Ask Download Squad: What's the best alternative to Microsoft Office?

Last week, we asked you to help us decide which was the best online photo-sharing service. The hands-down winner: Flickr, though there were a few votes for other services, including Smugmug, Fotki and Winkflash. Here's this week's question: Writing yesterday's post about Microsoft's efforts to get users to upgrade to Office 2003 got me thinking: if they're having that much trouble getting customers to upgrade to the latest version of Office, they're probably also having a hard time getting new users to buy Office for the first time. After all, Office is expensive, and for many people, may be overkill. And there are quite a few credible alternatives to Office, including OpenOffice.org, WordPerfect Office and even Microsoft's own low-end suite, Works. So, what's your choice — or do you find that nothing but Office will do it for you? Post your answer in the Comments section below. And, if you'd like to have your question included here, send it to us using this form. We'll post one question each week.