She been a good mom and needs a good going to the Army present. She's a non power user and I want her to have something extremly stable and easy to use.

Since stability is an issue it rules out XP, so how good are ibooks and how long does it take to get one?

Apple has a federal employee discount program:

http://www.apple.com/federal/howtobuy/epp.html

With the iBook, get an iSight camera, it's great.

iBooks are excellent, after 2.5 years using them I won't go back to a windows laptop - very, very simple to use and to connect. They're completely file compatible with Windows; our office network is exclusively windows, my iBook is the only Mac there, I've never had a single compatibility issue with standard biz files (word, excel, powerpoint), plus I can just plug any open ethernet cable into my iBook and get net access (via our office network) with no configuration whatsoever. I've done that on networks in other offices as well - just a great machine.

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81 300SD
08 MDX Tech
93 525i

05 F650GS

Good I ordered one tonight, I have to admit they are well priced for what you get. She's a non power user so I can't deal with the windows related threats and crashes. Shebettalikeit.

Thanks all. I did get a discount because of my disabled vet status.

I forgot 2 mention that I ordered 2

impulse sucks.

You should have fun with the .mac e-mail and web space.

I'm losing sleep thinking about it, I can access the net via bluetooth DUN on my Treo. I've experimented with the Bluetooth dun on doze puters and it was a PIA to configure but I played with a power book and had it running in minutes if not seconds.

What is it about apple that makes it so superior to MS? Is it that Apple strives to make cutting edge techs its niche?

The answer to that is the tight fisted grip that Apple maintains over hardware and software, unlike the folks in Redmond that have to deal with device drivers, legacy devices, different BIOS makers, and all the like. Life in Cupertino is less complicated since they have a virtual monopoly on the hardware and strictly control how software works on their platform.

Exactly. That control enables Steve Jobs to indulge his obsessions with innovation and elegance, in hardware design and in the user interface. Except for the grim years of Sculley, Gil Amelio, and that other German guy, Apple's pushed the edges on everything, and done it with style. It's always been the cool choice, if you had a choice. Who can innovate on the Wintel side? Not intel, they just provide the horsepower. Not the boxmakers - how can Dell or HP step out with something new? Microsoft is the only potential source of innovation, and that goes against everything their culture's built on. The end result is that Apple comes out with the new stuff, and it's added by MSFT-led consensus in the Wintel world a couple of years later.

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81 300SD
08 MDX Tech
93 525i

05 F650GS

is a master marketer but short on innovation. Windows is nothing more than a simulation program that makes an antquated operating system look like a mac, hence the complexity and lack of stability. Our office has been mac based since the eighties and I have yet to call the IT consultant to deal with a mac.

Jim

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2005 C240 4matic wagon (daily driver)
87 190D - 225K (on loan)
85 190D - 312K (on loan)
2011 Subaru Legacy AWD (Wife's)