Mac Questions

Thanks for all your advice on the announcement post. Here are some questions I have run into in this process:

  1. For school and work I definitely have to get the Office Suite. How would you recommend doing this? iWork? MS Office for Mac? NeoOffice? OpenOffice.org?
  2. How necessary is a dual boot option through Parallels, Boot Camp, or VMware? I don’t want to spend money on getting XP or Vista if it isn’t all that necessary.
  3. Is AppleCare Protection worth the $250?
  4. Where can you get the best value for a carrying case? Or is a hard case a good way to go?
  5. A lot of you are saying 4 GBs of RAM is the way to go…how many of you disagree? I really want to cut every corner I can to save money.
  6. Is there a choice on type of screen? I’ve heard about a glossy screen and a matt screen.

Thanks for your help everyone!