basically, I am wondering;what's the difference between DAZ3D and Poser...?

Do you mean Daz studio?

dang..start off with that line here? that's a hangin' offense..;)
They do the same thing, but Poser's been around for a few years, and has many more capabilities, which ones I'm not sure of, but I seem to remember people complaining of Posing.
Daz Studio is fairly new, and works well with Daz products (whoda thunk?..;), and has a tie-in to Bryce, so you can do awesome backgrounds, etc. It's also free.
If you're just getting into people pictures, and aren't sure if you're comitted, start with Daz, then upgrade to Poser when you're ready..;)

In some things, DAZ|Studio is better than Poser - it's lighting and camera controls are way better, the interface is more friendly. It's memory management is better. It's far superior in value for money, cos it's free! In other things, it demonstrates its youth: it can't handle Poser magnets, dynamic clothing or strand-based hair. It's shader is a nightmare and creating realistic skin can be difficult to achieve. You can do more with Poser, though it still has huge memory management problems. Daz|Studio has shown a promising start, it will be interesting to see how well it addresses the above.

Daz Studio has it's own magnet system which works quite well (so no need to handle poser mags). If you can use Poser magnets, you'll definately be able to use D|S deformers :) That being said, I still use Poser Pro Pack. Poser 6 just has too much crap that I don't need (strand hair - eeewwww hello wire brush)(dynamic cloth - unrealistic clothing edges) and I don't have time to learn D|S well enough to use it commercially.

Daz Studio stinks! It is more complicated then Poser ... and talk about sloooooooooooow. The Pro Pack (in my opinion) is still the best thing out there since sliced bread).

I'm a big POSER user since Poser 4 and I have totally fallen in love with DAZ Studio. You can access the categories quickly, better light settings and the backdrops apply so much better. Yes Poser can do a lot more than DAZ but for a "FREE" program, you can bet that your renders will be just as good. Just my two cents!!

Me personally, I started out in Bryce, then on to poser. I now use Daz Studio Exclusively. The only thing I use poser for anymore is when I am beta testing something for someone. Other then that, poser never gets opened on my puter. Its a matter of taste I guess. For me, it is so much more instinctive to use then poser was for me. And it is so much faster for me then poser was. JMHO. :D

...Well DS has got a much better, fully customizable user friendly interface, that is lightning fast. Just navigating the libraries is pretty much instant. I also love that you can put files wherever you like. For instance I have all hairs in one folder, both character- and propbased, and in subfolders of each hair I have their MAT-files. So much easier.

So the short answer is yes, DS is better than Poser. IMHO :)

Daz Studio seems to have an internal design which allows modules to be easily added. The base program is free while mopre of the modules are paid for. Some of the modules are reckoned better than anything Poser has. With Poser, on the other hand, you have a lot of people with a lot of experience of using the program. Poser dynamic hair was badly described in the P5 manual, but some users were able to figure out what to do, and have told everyone.