You stated that you have enjoyed the iBook because it was easy to use and worry-free. Guess what, apart from looking different and having a new operating system on it, nothing changed. You will find the new one as easy to use as the old one.
The limitations of Quickbooks is a resident Pain in the YKW but you have lived with that so far.
I'm a little confused by your statement that you will not be able to access your customers site once they upgrade to Internet Explorer 7. The customers website should not be dependent on any one particular browswer and if it is, you might want to suggest to the customer that he needs to employ someone else to build his website. Bye the way, IE 7 is a browser and is not used to build websites.
With the Intel Mac you could run windows using BootCamp or VM software like Fusion or Parallels. Then you could access the customers site with no problems.
If you get the Mac, you will NEED a broadband connection to the internet AND if you run Windows on it you will certainly need Virus protection on the Windows side. You have obviously been lucky with your PC's so far, but I wouldn't push it.
Bottom line: Go with the Intel Mac and be able to do all the things you have mentioned.
P
We own a pre-Intel iBook and have loved it because it has been easy to use and worry-free. Though we have been hampered by the bug-ridden, limited Quickbooks Pro for Mac, my husband's business runs on the iBook except for one small part, which requires a PC. We have continued to use our Gateway Astro PC for that purpose but will be unable to use it once the customer upgrades to Internet Explorer 7, we are told. (Please correct me if I am wrong.)
Our decision is, do we buy an Intel Mac and make it a PC/Mac? or do we replace the Astro with a budget PC? Because the PC is used only for accessing the customer site, we don't even run anti-virus software (which always seemed to gum up the works) and use dial-up; we could do the same with the PC and keep costs and hassle to a minimum. If we got an Intel Mac, we'd feel the need to protect it, but could use cable to access the internet and make use of PC software like Quickbooks.
I'm trying to figure out how difficult it is to deal with an Intel Mac. Obviously we are not computer-savvy and have really loved the iBook because it has been so easy for dummies like us.

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