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St,
As much as I'd love to send you after a mini, I'd be more inclined to go with a Macbook be it an aluminum or white variety. The reasons are two-fold. The first is that this is not going to be a secondary machine. It's a primary machine. So, a standard size display and keyboard may prove vital. The horsepower may not be that important for basic tasks like browsing the web and such. But, if there is any chance the machine may need to do more than that, speed may come into play.
One of the things I never see discussed in mini 9 threads is what happens when Apple updates the OS. Yes, people post about success and general usability but that's as far as the threads go typically. If the machine is a primary use machine, then I'm going to want to ensure a basic software update isn't going to break it. With a Macbook, updates will work. Dell Mini 9? Who's to say?
Robert
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Thanks, Robert. You hit the nail on the head with regard to primary v. secondary machine. It also seems to me that even basic web browsing is demanding more and more computing power as RIAs become more the norm, YouTube pushes HD video, etc.
By way of follow-up, I was suckered in by the slightly lower price and the freebies at MacMall and sprung for a new lowend whiteBook with 9400M graphics ($928 after MiR, no tax v. $849 + $53 tax for a refurb from Apple).
Yes, I'll be filling in a crapload of MiR forms that will take me weeks to get back, but I think this is the best deal I could find at the moment. It will certainly be a substantial step up from her PB G4.
