I have some machines running Linux, and Open Office I use for writing and work, email and browsing the Internet.
I use my XP Pro machine exclusively for gaming. Nothing else.
I can write just fine with Open Office, and do all the same things you can do with MS Office. I don’t use anything MS if I don’t have to.
Since my games do not run well under Linux (if at all) I keep machines for that.
Otherwise, real work is accomplished with linux and other open source applications that aren’t paid for, and no one is forcing me to license them.