I imagine that’s quite a common situation.

Me too.

I’m sure there was stuff that I’d enjoy, but finding it was near impossible.

At the end of the occasional thing I’d watch to the end, an irrelevant ad for something else jumps up. Kin annoying.

I have used OpenOffice on Macs.

Also there are some free Apple apps that aren’t installed by default. (GarageBand and one for making gifs)

That sounds right. I think I remember paying for iWork back then too.