Josh Assing wrote:
Has anyone else thought about jumping ship and going to the dark side?

Using a mac is not the "dark side" it's just different. If you're not used to
it; stick with a pc -- especially if you travel -- you'll be bound to find more
spots that support a pc over mac, and parts are always cheaper.

I would suggest a cheap laptop with xp and OpenOffice.

I don't think the learning curve of a Win XP user will be very different
between Vista and Mac. I have never had trouble negotiating a Mac even
though it is a little different.