WordPress MU

Hello,
I will be creating multiple websites on different domain names that all use the same theme (with slightly different graphics).

My question to you ... Would it be more beneficial to use multiple installs of WordPress or use WordPress MU?

Thanks for your help!

Depends on if you want to upgrade multiple copies of WP when the time comes.

I'd use MU.

Andrea,
Thanks for the reply. I don't mind upgrading multiple copies. I just want to be sure that (using MU) I can have multiple blogs that each have their own domain, theme (customized by me), and plugins. I do not want to use subdomains, nor do I want to have to use the same plugins on every site.

Yes, WPMu will do domain mapping. There's a number of different methods to do so but I believe most folks are using this one:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/

If you search the forums for domain mapping, you should see lots of discussion on this.

As to the plugins, just drop them all in the plugins directory and let folks choose which ones they want.

And theme editing is locked down so you'll have to have access either via ftp or with the hosting software and only you should have that I would think.

Yes, yes and yes. everything you listed is pretty straightforward in MU & easily do-able.