I agree with what both these guys say. Firewire boosts the cost far more than the software does, and in fact the software probably does not actually add to the street cost at all.
Take the software. You'll never know when you'll need it because an associate has a project they did in that package, it never hurts to learn more than one application, and you never know what you'll fine in that app that you like better than the one your'e using now. I use several different NLE software packages; I pick the best tool for the job. Rarely do I use the same app for recording, mixing and mastering, it's usually three different ones. So take the freebie software. You probably have plenty of hard drive space for it anyway.
And as far as Firewire vs. USB, at this time and at the level of gear you're looking at, there is no real intrinsic advantage to Firewire, yet it does tend to cost much more (typically a few hundred dollars) for FW- vs USB-equipped hardware. If you want to save money w/o sacrificing mentionable performance, look at that angle of it.
G.
