I support a lot of academic's computers. Lots of them use TeX. Mostly Math and Physics, but a little in all the sciences. I don't think they could write their papers w/o TeX. They look great with lots of complicated math formulas, all in a nice .pdf that everyone can read and journals can publish. I install MikTeX, GSView, GhostScript, and WinEdt (shareware) and they're happy.

rectal scan?