For what I know a mac would probably not be a solution. It is MUCH too hyped and expensive. She would not even dream of being able to buy such a thing (I could but not her - to me a mac is not an option because for 1000 ? I get more memory on a normal PC and what's count to me is CPU + RAM if I don't want to fall asleep with Trados). If Windows goes into a rental solution, she won't be able to pay a rent just to surf once a while - she will be more likely to keep on XP until the computer dies (the XP she uses is actually not even her own license). Linux? In my experience if it's not packaged with a computer she is not technically skilled to cope with it - sorry. It's a nice idea but then you switch it on and: - The router is not configurated properly or at all - The screen has the wrong resolution (totally shifted with black range) - Printer don't work if you didn't think of buying a network printer (I found an information sheet about trying to go around CUPS to use a USB printer but I gave up before it working and WITH a correct driver). - Your keyboard is not recognized properly, you have to set your manual keyboard manually if you want to write a é on a German keyboard. That's my experience on installing Linux on a computer that wasn't meant for it. I however see good chances for Wine if Windows goes on a rental path and it is already installed on the cheap computer segment (like EE PC)
