Some program ?'s(&hardware) for poss switcher

Ok, been trolling around thinking about maybe moving on to a MacbookPro. Hardware is beautiful and like the fact of possibly moving away from windows. I tried linux and i use it, but it still doesnt have a good wife acceptance factor for now so i stick with XP. Anyway she is comfortable with a mac(used it at work) so i figure id give a look at it.

While I would LOVE to totally get away from windows im afraid i may always have to use bootcamp/paralles. not for games, but for some programs. i have a treo 650 may even move up sometime later, and havent heard any success stories about syncing under a mac without buying some more software. Which also brings up Outlook. If Microsoft did anything right its outlook. just love the program and i keep my pst file on my server so no matter what machine im on i have access to contacts, mail etc. outlook syncs pretty well with my 650

the other thing i thing Microsoft did right was media center. i have a dedicated box that i have been ripping MY dvd's to so my son can watch all his movies. (ok i do it for dad too ). most of the time going to the basement to rip movies is not an option so i do it on the laptop,which the MBP will be replacing. so trying to see what switchers use to rip dvd's, take content out (angles, unneeded audio etc) like in shrink (i dont actually shrink the movie). i need something like vob2mpeg which does exactly what its name says and a program like videoredo which performs a stream fix to correct any bad frames. AGAIN this is for legit purposes!!!

those are my questions for the programs. Now onto the machine itself. the main question is 128 or 256 video. i know people say its negligable but i would really like to use the MBP to make family videos and stuff. would the extra ram on the video card help with video editing or should i just stay with the 128 version and add system ram?

the other question is the touchpad and keyboard. if i need to use windows till i can make a full switch, is it lacking? i mean do you miss the 2nd button, and home delete keys etc....remember i also like linux so i may try a dual boot with slackware.

I would really like to make this move but 2 -2.5k is a lot of money to test. (trying to get to the apple store today)