Rick, actually you can download the mozilla spell-checker separately, I believe. The price is right. ;-)
FWIW, my hard drive started to clatter and when it was replaced, somebody "helpful" decided to reinstall my machine with a decidedly open source flavor. Thunderbird, Firefox, Open Office. Open Office is slow- apparently because it's converting doc files every time it opens them. Thunderbird is cool. Firefox I'm used to. But no Outlook and no Word? Those two have been my buddies since they were first released for Windows. Feels strange- almost as if I've been tricked into joining the Rebel Alliance. ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
