There are various alternatives, some free, some low cost.
Free
http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/ (don't know much about it) Probably fine if you are just using for yourself and not exchanging many files for business.
There is other free stuff, but nothing comes to mind now.
Low cost
http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/st...6.0/index.html Sun Microsystems MS office alternative -- about USD 75. Gets good reviews in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere, but some more elaborate formatting does not transfer well (now at least) between, say, MS Excel and the StarOffice version. So, they say, if you need good compatibility with MS office, use MS Office. I'd guess though, that StarOffice would provide greater compatibility with MS Office than MS Works.
I like the Corel suites also, but you have the same compatibility issue.
Myself, I use MS Office 2000 just because I am exchanging so many files with other MS Office uses.