Four programs that I already use, 3 from mozilla, are provided in the links above! Firefox is a WONDERFUL alternative to Netscape, or to Microsoft's Internet Explorer browsers, and Thunderbird  is the BEST email client software I have used, offering more features and easier to use than Microsoft's Outlook Express!  Both offer many options and safety features.  Best of all, they are FREE!  And If you want it all in one application, then SeaMonkey (from mozilla) offers a browser, Email & Newsgroup client, web page editor, IRC chat, and much more, all in a single application!

The 4th program, Open Office, from openoffice.org, is an open source program - meaning it is FREE, and the source code is available to anyone.  It is derived in part from Sun Microsystems technology.  More and more software is becoming available in this form, and Open Office shows just how good this software can be.  It is (as far as I have been able to determine) compatible with ALL normal office files, running all my "other vendor" files!
If you want a VERY GOOD OFFICE SUITE, and don't want to pay $200-$300 for it, give this a try!

There is also another version of Open Office, called OxygenOffice Professional (OOOP or O2OP), which was originally called Open Office Professional