My office is due for a serious technology upgrade. There's only three of us, but we're running 2006 Dell desktops with WindowsXP and MS-Office 2007.

Since I'm a fiscally responsible public servant, I'm considering replacing our desktop systems with refurbs. And I'm also considering making the switch to freeware for our office functionality. Right now, we use Outlook, Work, and Excel for basic correspondence and document creation, and a menu-driven Access database (built in 1997-98).

Does anybody have any experience with Apache or other open source office software? Any advice or warnings about making a switch?