Mac Mini for mom?

[Fritz]

if we got her a 1.5G MacTel with 1/2G RAM, will Tiger/Panther be stable? Or would I still need to add some ram? She's 85 and pretty much just uses it for email, web, occasional word process. Seldom runs a multi-national business on it.

[jdc]

more than enough.

i might guess she wont have to turn it off for at least 3-4 years?

i run my dual 2.0 with very heavy applications running tiger -- 3 months without a restart (according to uptime in menu bar) -- so stability isnt an issue

[SteveJobs]

85!
Pretty good to use a computer.

[jardster]

How do you convice an 85 year old that they don't have to turn the thing off all of the time? My grandmother is 85 and has a nice iMac G5 (just got her an iSight so she can iChat with all of the grandkids, she loves it!). She just won't listen when I tell her to leave the thing on! Oh well, I'm just glad she uses it.

To answer your question, that'll be plenty of computer/memory.

[raz]

My Mom's about 10 years younger, and just got her new mini last November (to replace an iMac 333 running 8.6).

She had no problems with the transition, and (other than the time she accidently pulled the power cord out) has never had a crash or needed a reboot.

I did get her a 19" LCD (Dell 1905) as opposed to a 20 because the pixels are larger. There are things to consider at that age.

[jdc]

tell her to put it to sleep jardster -- it will go totally off and silent

[JEBB]

Be sure to get a surge protector or UPS for protections during power interuptions. If she lives in a lightening-prone area she may need to be turning it off and unplugging it when storms come thru.

[Chupa Chupa]

I've got a stock 1.5 MacTel mini that I use as a music server. It's pretty solid if you are just running one or two programs at a time. Should have no problems for her use.

[Fritz]

she won't care about turning it off. Lives in one of them full life care facilities. It's all in th rent, except for the broadband, $20/mo for dsl.
I'll just have to re-ed her about not needing to be concerned about on the phone or off for internet. It'll be nice to have her in OSX coz I can't remember OS9 stuff when I have to help her out.

Thanks all.

[bangman]

Love the Mac mini. Best Mac I've ever owned.