Microsoft Office - how can I get a free copy, do I need it, what I can I use instead ?

Here's my latest good advice.

I have just been asked how to get a free or cheap copy of Microsoft Office.
Why I ask ?
"For Outlook for emails and Word for documents."

My answer is to use Thunderbird for emails. I've been using it for many years with no problems.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/download

Use Open Office for Word and Excel.
http://www.openoffice.org.au/  - well that's because I'm in Australia
http://www.openoffice.org/  - use this elsewhere.
Read more about it here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_OpenOffice

Open Office is similar to Microsoft Word and can read and save Word and Excel documents.

Use Chrome or Firefox or Opera as a web browser, rather than Internet Explorer (IE)
Firefox link -   https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
Opera link   - http://www.opera.com/
Google Chrome link - http://www.google.com/chrome/

Google Chrome is a lot better than Internet Explorer. I can sign in to me Gmail account and sync my Gmail, Calendar, Contacts and Bookmarks across every device, computer and phones.

In my opinion, Thunderbird is every bit as good as Outlook and it is free.
Open Office is every bit as good as Microsoft Office and it is free !

Cheers. Si.