1. Yes, also true with iWork. Just a note, I tried Open Office for about 2 weeks when I got this laptop and didn't like some of the differences between it and Word. I had 2 extra licenses of office '08 so I ended up installing that, even though I didn't really want to.
2. CCC and SuperDuper are both great tools. CCC is free (it may be donationware). SuperDuper will erase and clone for free, or with pain (EDIT: meant paid, haha) registration you get smart updates, which only update changed files after your initial drive clone. If you only need to clone once, the free way is fine. If you plan on keeping a bootable clone around, SuperDuper is definitely worth the $20 or so.
