I really like the iMac we bought my wife, but my parents had the opposite requirement. They want portability, mainly so they can hide it away and not spoil the design aesthetics of their place, which makes sense I guess.

Luckily, I have a clean slate. Nothing old to upgrade or port. This will be a true test of Mac's just works UX for brand new users. I'm a bit worried about how well it will translate for the uninitiated. We'll see.

Re. sales tax, I don't pay it at all ever to anyone, even if they do get that legislation passed that closes the nexus loophole. Oregonians will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way.

I finally convinced him to get a Mac, so he opted for the iMac last year as my mom insisted on not getting a laptop (as this would “make him take his work with him even to summer cottage”, as the sound reasoning went). I showed him a couple of OS X basics, like how to apply system updates and import photos to iPhoto. Mom and dad both seemed more than happy with the new machine and were very impressed with some of the out-of-the-box functionality (like iPhoto's slideshows). Dad was mostly concerned with compatibility with his old Word docs and what-not, but has been able to work things out with OpenOffice and other free alternatives. The biggest migration issue was getting his years worth of Outlook Express mails transferred to Mail.app.

Migration issues aside, so far no real technical support has been required. In case there would be, I'd probably try remoting to his desktop and fixing the problem myself rather than trying to explain things on the phone like before (unless it was a network problem, of course).

But overall it's been a pretty good experience. Never had to use the VNC server for remote login that I set up on their box (no, it's NOT auto-started). The really tricky part for me is to give instructions for a German language XP without having access to it. Those translations used by Microsoft aren't necessarily the most intuitive ones.

I'd go with a Mac if there is no pre-existing Windows experience.

Oh, and as a Californian, I don't pay sales tax to Amazon either

I would still like to get him on Ubuntu if only to keep him from just deleting programs.

My limited experience with the GB matches yours. Schedule ahead b/c showing up w/o an appointment is maddening, especially if you didn't plan to buy various knick-knacks for your Apple crap. I'm a relentless consumer when bored

I agree they are very nice and patient with n00bs, which is why I don't like going there. It's tough to get a quick answer for a specific question, e.g. how much are your memory upgrades for a MB? That took 10 times longer than it should have and required two geniuses. But they are very nice and good with people's broken stuff. I think they must take crisis training b/c some of the people in there for help are ready to explode.

All that aside, I am de facto tech support for my parents, and not having a comparable system at home makes remote troubleshooting hard. You'll be glad you picked a Mac for that reason alone. My Windows VMs are all Win2K and XP, which aren't great help for telephone-based walkthroughs.

This may be relevant, geographically speaking: the two Apple Stores nearest me frequently have long Genius Bar queues. My friend uses the South Hills Village store, and always needs an appointment. I once had to wait 40 minutes in the Shadyside store to get someone to look at my MBP for 30 seconds and declare that, yes, it *did* need a new battery. OTOH, I recently went in for a replacement power supply and they just handed me one and sent me on my way. Conventional wisdom suggests calling ahead, though.

I have had occasion to observe (translation: I'm nosy) the Genius Bar in action during my visits to the Shadyside store, and found that even during busy times the staff remains friendly and accommodating, even with less technically inclined customers.

FWIW, I've also been a customer of the two major broadband providers in town (Verizon for DSL and Comcast more recently), and found service to be mercifully, consistently average in both cases. Nothing to write home about, but okay. Verizon hasn't rolled FIOS to my part of town yet, but my suburban bandwidth-freak buddies who have been so blessed have not regretted dropping Comcast for Verizon. I'd bet that in your parents' case, the best bundle (phone or cable co.) wins.

I recommend a different relative! (Hi Phil!)

Mom is another story. Since she won't go in dad's room (it's a mess of course), she wanted her own. I've used Dell for quite a while and find them fairly inexpensive. But, I knew that mom wouldn't be the only one using it.

Despite working most of her adult life with Mac like computers (newspaper publishing), she sort of missed the internet revolution via work. She had the “wire” back in her day (I still remember getting pictures off the “wire” back in the early '80s and I also remember the cool pneumatic tubes all over the place…a 10 year olds heaven!).

Anyway, I gave them a few options and they went with a Dell 17in laptop. Vista Home I think. Who uses it? Dad. CBS Sportsline in the living room while watching the Reds.

Did I answer a question here? Not sure. I haven't talked to a soul today so…