I'm looking for a new camera... (long story included)

[Zwaf]

I checked them out but they indeed are a bit too steep for my pocket.. and so are all DSLR's, that's why I'm going to sacrifice most cool functions you get with them at look at the cheaper point and shoots

I'm now looking at the Coolpix P5000 and the Canon Powershot G7. They lack most of the functions a (close)DSLR would have but I can live with that. I'm more of an enthousiastic casual shooter anyway.. and I'm a student so I should check my wallet.

What do you guys think of these cameras? I looked around the internet (dpreviews.com) and find out the Powershot outperformed the Coolpix (no far though). The Powershot is more expensive though and it lacks RAW.. but I dont really need that I guess.
The apertures vary and both have manual focus.
How do these variables relate to making pictures with shallow DOF? Can these cameras do a pretty well job at that? Does it mean these cameras can only produce the DOF-effect at distances between x and y etc... Cos too be honest, I have no idea how aperature actually relates to what area of a picture becomes sharp.
So how does the DOF of one of these cameras relate to that of a higher model (or DSLR) in terms of sharpness (if you understand what I mean). I'm pretty much at a noob at this stuff so . I just want to stay in control of what my camera is doing.

Or do you guys know of a good alternative? (I didnt check out that much cameras since there are a lot)

thanks!

EDIT: I just found out there's also a Powershot G9 which apparently does have RAW, I'll dig into it in a moment.