I use Open Office as my primary office suite. It provides me with every feature I need, and being free is even better. Another service that has been around for a while is Google Docs. The aim is to allow you to store your documents online, and be able to access them from anywhere. This however, means editing from within your web browser, and requiring an active internet connection.

My ideal solution would allow me to access/edit my documents in a Google Docs fashon, but then sync these docs onto the local drive of my computer. Currently there is an extension in beta development that allows you to do this, however it simply wouldn't work for me correctly, and seems to need a lot of work done to get it to a usable level. The idea is excellent though!

The reason for having documents online is for the ability to access them anywhere, from any computer, and collaberation. The ability to "share" documents with users is a major point, as it means documents do not go out of date, and inter-office documents can be used by everyone at once.

An almost (surprise) contender to this race is Microsoft. They are developing Office Live (an online version of Office), which could almost spell the end for google docs in the office environment, as most workplaces already have MS Office in use. Google Docs and Open Office would have a compelling reason to switch if they can get the offline/online mix right.