For those of you who are interested in checking out Office Web Apps prior to deploying SharePoint 2010, there's an easy way to check it out in a hosted environment.
First, if you don't have a Windows Live ID, head on over to
www.live.com and get one for free.
Once you're there, check out skydrive.live.com
You should notice that you've been given 25 gigabytes of free space! Skydrive is a great place to store/move files that you want to take with you.
Now, for the last part - accepting or "opting in" to the Office Web apps technical preview for Skydrive. Doing this will enable you to create Word/Excel/PowerPoint/OneNote documents within the browser, as well as upload and/or edit existing Office documents.
To accept the agreement, go here:
After doing so, you should be able to create new documents from the "New" tab within Skydrive.
Also important to note is that the SharePoint 2010 deployment of Office Web Apps includes many more features, like integration with the SharePoint system and all of the great controls that come with it.