Hmmm. Well reasoned, Trekkiegrrrl. It makes sense to start as you mean to go on, and as Poser comes with more basic kit, the extra price is negated. And if the Daz interface is different, there's not much point in learning it if you intend to graduate to Poser, is there?

I've also ticked off 4 gigs of RAM as a must have....thanks, NoelCan. 

The reason I've posted here is because I couldn't find an unassigned forum. But I do not exclude Vue and the other Poser alternatives - it's just that I don't know what they do!

Can anyone tell me? If I buy Vue, will I be limited to content designed for that program? And what about the other 'base' rendering programs?  

Lightwave, Shade, Z-brush? Can these add on to Poser?