Here’s some of the latest web-based Office Suites based off Ajax. Some of these do eliminate the requirement of having a bulky office suite installed on your PC.

Think Free Online:
http://online.thinkfree.com/
“Thinkfree develops cross-platform applications and online solutions. It’s flagship offering, ThinkFree Office 3, is a Microsoft Office-compatible suite, which allows users to seamlessly create and interact with all kinds of documents and files. Because it is platform independent, it is an ideal and cost-effective way for anyone to work with their office files anywhere, anytime.”

Writely:
http://www.writely.com/
“Writely is a web word processor that provides simple and secure document collaboration and publishing on the web using only the browser. ”

gOFFICE:
https://goffice.com/
“gOFFICE.com, by Silveroffice, Inc., provides an online office suite which allows customers to quickly create documents via a web browser. The customer types in their browser, chooses a letterhead design and receives a professionally formatted PDF file in moments. Customers do not require Adobe Acrobat, as the PDF files are created on the gOFFICE servers. The output from gOFFICE is of high quality. Have a look at this example.”

Zoho Writer:
http://www.zohowriter.com/
Zoho writer allows you to access, edit, share your documents from anywhere. Imports Microsoft Word or Open office document formats. Documents created in Zoho Writer can be exported as PDF/DOC/HTML files.