I recently purchased a Fujitsu Siemens laptop from Tesco's(dont laugh)it cost me £278,they are selling the same thing at Staples for £299!It CAME pre installed with Windows Vista Basic,Bill Gates has got tight fisted as this version does'nt include a word processor.
I downlowded ABBIWORD off the web"FOR FREE".beats paying £199 for windows office! I BOUGHT a cheap laptop recently, also didn't come with a word processor and i've got openoffice. http://www.openoffice.org/ which is a FULLY featured office package. Which even supports micro$oft file formats and can convert between open source file formats and closed source file formats.

FBThanks for the info,might try that,was it a free download?yup 100% free.

FBWindows doesn't include a word processor anyway, but MS Office is often bundled.
I do like Abiword myself, not a fan of OpenOffice any more but that's just me.
It is free, and you can't really fault it.ThanksWindows includes a simple word processor, WordPad, but I think you'll find AbiWord a much better word processor than WordPad. 

When MS Office is included in a new system, it's usually a trial version.  After the trial period, the product can not be used until properly REGISTERED and paid for.  Still, the Home and Student version that is usually the version, if any, found on new systems can be bought for about $150, much less than the Pro, and other, versions.  And, that may include a license to install it on three computers; at least, that the deal I was offered with the Home and Student trial version installed on the Compaq notebook PC I purchased in July 2007.

Microsoft Works is also often bundled with new systems; it includes a fairly basic word processor, spreadsheet, database, and some other features. Thanks for the info