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OpenOffice and Google Docs. Both great and both free.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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I used OpenOffice a while back.
I didn't like it because... it looks like it is compatible with MS Office, in most ways, but is just enough different to drive you nuts. If you are handing off any documents in electronic form to an office user (or vice versa) you could get into compatibility/display problems which will look unprofessional.
On the other hand, if none of the documents will leave your computer, and it is just for tracking your own information, it will be fine.
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Kingsoft rocks.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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It cost like $200 to buy Word and Excel. I'm not *that* pro MS usually, but $200 for all the crap you can do with those two programs isn't that bad of a deal.
That being said, last I checked OpenOffice was extremely compatible. Just as another alternative, the KDE project makes Calligra[^].
Jeremy Falcon
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POV - US$200 seen from India is one hell of a lot more than US$200 seen from US (or Singapore for that matter).
I could be disparaging about Indians not wanting to spend money on software when they are in the industry but that would be bigoted/racist or just plain rude!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: but $200 for all the crap you can do with those two programs isn't that bad of a deal.
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Since you mentioned programming related, I assume you are doing VBA macro for your customers.
Your customers are most likely use MS office, and your programming work with Office alternates will not able to use in their environment. I believe Office 365 Home is the cheapest solution.
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Used OpenOffice for many years, actually still have it installed on my personal laptop. Works just great
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I used to use OpenOffice, but Oracle stuffed it up. I've since changed to LibreOffice for PC and Kingsoft WPS for tablet. Navigating tables within word documents has a few odd quirks within LibreOffice, but they are easily dealt with.
I deal with documents of a sensitive nature and have limited resources, so web-based and Office365 are off the table.
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Basically it all depends on how advanced a user you are, and what your requirements are.
Personally I find LibreOffice is more than up to the task for my needs. I prefer it to OpenOffice for personal reasons.
If your requirements are more basic, I recommend Google Docs. The collaboration and sharing features are excellent, and its always nice having cloud access to your stuff when you are out of home/office. On top of which you can access and use it on your phone if necessary.
I use GoogleDocs for most of my needs, and keep Libre around, just in case there is a new docx/xlsx from a client that I need to open, and docs is on the fritz.
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I know everyone has supplied an opinion so l thought l would join in. 
If just need the basics nothing fancy such as creating macros get either google docs or office online l use what's built into onedrive.com. Both do the basics and if your client has internet connection can easily collaborate with your client by sharing the document. Or download document and email.
Need a little more? then Librie Office is good can open and save microsoft formats. Ohh and its free you can get hold of a portable version at portableapps.com as well. Its not quite the same as MS Office however it can do 99% of the things you might want to do.
HTH
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I have used Open Office and Kingsoft Office and I would suggest Kingsoft Office as majority of the features available in MS Office is available in Kingsoft Office.
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You can purchase original MSOffice licences for a cheap as a few dozen dollars on ebay. (legally, if needed said !).
I for instance have a full professional install of MSOffice 2010 on my home computer, bought for $35 two years ago.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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My vote to LibreOffice. It's free, runs fantastic and handles every MS Office document type. It's pretty maintained.
Try it a little to familiarize yourself with it. As example, its writter is better than MS Word handling objects like tables and images
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I'd suggest LibreOffice too. I've used Impress for presentations, and the writer for everything from letters to writing a novella.
I don't have to hear complaints from my wife about the presence of "the ribbon" on her computers- a big plus. 
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My wife, who is a lawyer, turns to LibreOffice too because of the ease of use and the practical functionality
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Go with Kingsoft office, pretty small download. Simple to use. Works well with MS office documents
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While not perfect, MS office is the best and most common and you will find most your customers use it. I don't advocate piracy but ive *heard* of folks getting friendly students or kids to buy a copy that enables a multi pc licence. Myself, I bought it and claimed the full amount back in my accounts as a business expense rather than paying it in tax. GL
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Kingsoft office is very good! You can have a try. Made in china is the best.
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If the only reason you are wanting to avoid office is the cost, and if your freelance work could be considered a "startup" business, you definitely will want to take a look at the Microsoft Bizspark program -- an amazing (free) MS-sponsored organization that is dedicated to helping startups by providing free tools (both dev and Office tools). It really is quite incredible.
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If you need to exchange documents with other people using MS Office, you really have no choice but to use MS Office yourself, and you'll have to be using a version fairly close to theirs at that.
If you have a full time job someplace, they might be part of the home use program, and you might be able to get a license for MS Office through that for a very reasonable cost.
If you don't need to interoperate with MS office, I've used the OpenOffice suite for a number of years and it works very well.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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