When you buy a new computer, it usually comes with basic software, but not enough applications to get you going.  Some companies offer software packages, but if you take these add-ons, you increase your costs, plus you usually end up getting a bunch of programs you won't use.  The number one program suite that businesses need is Office.  Many people buy Microsoft's Office Suite, which includes software for word processing (Word), spreadsheets (Excel), presentations (PowerPoint), sometimes more, depending on the version you get.  If you want to buy a single user license for just the Standard Edition, you're going to pay $400!  That's before you add users to that license so the others in your office can use the software as well.

Fortunately, there are alternatives.

The least expensive alternative is FREE.  Yes, free!  It's OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 and you can download it for free at www.openoffice.org.  This software was written by a community of programmers in an open source software setting, back by Sun Corporation.  Sun is the company that made available to all programmers the Java language and javascript, a backbone language for the web.  Their attitude about sharing information and data has contributed largely to the volume of software available, as well as advances in what's possible with software.  If you are familiar with Microsoft's Office, you'll find OpenOffice intuitive and simple to use.  The interface is very similar, yet faster loading and opening files.  It's more versatile as well, as you can save files in OpenOffice format as well as MS Word format.  That's right, that means you can open and save .doc files! The suite features word processing, spreadsheet, basic drawing, html (web) creation, and presentation programs.

Sun also offers another solution that is the world's leading office productivity suite on Linux and Solaris operating systems, and is the leading alternative on Windows operating systems: StarOffice 7 Office Suite can be found here: http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/index.xml
Their pricing structure is this:
Small/Medium Enterprises  25-user packs for $1500 
Medium/Large Enterprises and Government  Ranges from USD $50.00 per user (150 users) to USD $25.00 per user (10,000 users) 
Education No license fees; cost of media and shipping
Small Office/Home Office  Retail $79.95 but you can buy the special download version for home office for only $59.95

StarOffice also uses the familiar interface, which allows Microsoft users the ability to convert without much training.  The suite features word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database capabilities. It can also export to PDF, and to the Macromedia Flash format. Like OpenOffice, it is fully compatible with other office suites including Microsoft Office.

Another more affordable alternative recently gave Microsoft a run for their money, EIOffice 2004 from Evermore Integrated Office, a Chinese company, found on the web here: http://www.evermoresw.com/weben/index.jsp

EIOffice 2004 features word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet into a single application, not a collection of programs. And the look and feel is almost identical to Microsoft Office. Since it is written in Java, EIOffice runs as well on Windows as it does Linux systems. Similar to OpenOffice and Star Office, this software also imports and exports in Microsoft file formats.  Related documents can be saved in a single binder for better organization of files. You'll pay $149 for the software, plus receive free product support available online, and upgrades for one year.

Here are some reviews about this software:
http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=62
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d2ea49b8-4273-11d9-8e3c-00000e2511c8.html
http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/05/27/158237
http://www.cxotoday.com/cxo/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=969

One more alternative that has been around a while is Corel's Word Perfect Office 12, found at: www.wordperfect.com  Their software is generally priced about 60% less than Microsoft Office, and can be purchased in suite or individually.  For single users, the pricing is:
Home edition $89
standard edition $300
small business edition $349
Professional $399
Volume licensing is also available but they give price quotes for that.