Software at No Cost?

For many years now, free operating system, word processing and spreadsheet software has been available- this is nothing new (refer to my own blog on "Open Source Software for Engineers" in the "Software and Programming" section). There is an extensive community supporting Open Source software, and quite often, the Open Source software is superior to the commercial alternatives. Sources of this "free" software are not only enthusiasts, but also include any number of Universities and Government agencies (NIST, The US Army Balistics Research Laboratory, CERN, EDF, the French electrical utility, reputedly the largest public utility in the world). In the case of Open Source software from EDF, they have made available some very, very sophisticated software originally developed to analyze the design of nuclear power plants. The fact that there has never been a French nuclear power plant meltdown, one would be led to believe that this is some pretty good software...

There are commercial entities offering Open Source software for free, earning their keep through support contracts.

It would seem that the OP has confused this process with some of the latest "cloud" offerings. Vendors would be encouraged to offer "free" access to some of their proprietary software solutions in order to attract customers to their brand. This has been a popular marketing technique for years, but generally not for "free operating system, word processing and spreadsheet software".

With regards to the new cloud offerings of such office suite products as those provided by Microsoft, Google Docs, and so on, these are probably fine for non-critical, non-sensitive uses, especially for the casual user. There are also some potentially important advantages for those that are coaborating with others on a particular document. Obviously, storing information on the web is going to be fraught with all sorts of security issues, no matter how "secure" the provider pretends his system might be, and there are going to be occasional access issues for data stored primarily on the "cloud". Not a good idea for mission-critical processes. Another issue with web-based applications is that there is generally a steep learning curve involved with adopting new software solutions, and when relying on a cloud-based provider, one has no control over when or how often the provider modifies the basic software, possibly altering it to the point where the user must go through a new learning curve unexpectedly (i.e., consider the pain involved in switching from, say, Windows XP to Windows 7). The casual user, who is less likely to be adept at using a particular style of software is liable to spend more time on the help pages than in the actual application.

The fact that something is available at "no cost" is not a reason to question its viability. The most important questions are, what solutions are available to address my particular issue, and which is the most cost-effective when considering my operating environment and constraints?