You can buy third party mouseseses for the Mac...scroll wheel, right button and all.

I don't have hard figures on it but I would postulate from my personal experience that a Mac will be in service longer than a Windows machine without the need for extensive (and expensive) upgrades. When you have to replace the motherboard in a Windows machine in order to run the next upgrade of Windows and the new board costs half as much as the original computer did, I don't see that the extra bucks up front for a Mac makes that much difference.

And if you are worried about games, buy a Playstation. The "availability of games" argument is one of the most long standing arguments that I've ever heard in the Mac vs PC debate. I've watched as people (members of my OWN FAMILY! the horror...the horror...) have spent WAY more tricking out a PC as a "gaming machine" than they would have spent on a Mac in the first place....all the time arguing that Macs are "too expensive".

This is a no-win argument...I totally agree. Those of you old enough to remember the origins of the division will remember that it began when IBM introduced their home computers and made the point that they would be compatible with the systems that folks were using at work. At the time Mac would not. Several companies, Apple included, have found ways to make the files compatible over the years and that argument has faded away. My experience, again, shows that it's easier translate and work with Windows files on a Mac than vice versa. My daughter did a presentation for school last night with Mac's Keynote software and was able to save it in Windows Powerpoint format so that she could use it at school on their PCs. So now Mac is using intel chips and we draw nearer to the true RISC operating system (reduced instructions system).

Great movie: The President's Analyst. In it, Severn Darden played a Russian agent out to capture the President's psychiatrist. At one point he argues, "...every year we get a little more capitalistic and every year you get a little more socialistic. Sooner or later, we'll meet in the middle...so why are we fighting?" (Just so you know...this was a COMEDY, not a documentary.)

Best

AA