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.

ps - after downloading a evaluating Office 2007, OpenOffice is looking
very good. I gave my old computer to some kids down the street, and
transfered my Office 2003 to my new machine, I installed OpenOffice on
the computer before giving it to them. I thought it looked good they
have no problems using the software and submitting files to their
teachers.