Get an iBook. They start at $1899 at the Apple store. They go up to $2400 with a 12" screen and $2800 with a 14" screen. Unless you have significant visual problems I recommend the 12" screen. Get at least 256 meg of extra RAM for OS X.
USB bus powered floppy drives work fine with these machines and are easily found for less than $100. OS X doesn't support the built in drives on old machines, that is where the "doesn't support floppies" is over generalized from. BUT, I would recommend you reconsider floppies all together. Chuck them, get rid of them, abandon them. You are getting into a machine where you will be able to (and eventually want to) handle much more data than floppies are remotely useful for. Instead, get a CD burner. To do the initial file transfer you may need an AAUI converter for your 6100 and an ethernet cable. Any 10/100T ethernet cable will do because the iBook will autonegotiate the cross over. Under OS X with the slowest browser and the lowest end iBook you will be able to surf the web MUCH faster than your 6100. That said, the complaints about Mac web surfing speed are primarily related to Internet Explorer and large tables. IE is very slow with them while other Mac browsers do not share this defect on OS X. The Wired article did not quote Apple bashers but engineers at the Mac Business Unit of Microsoft who are supposed to be famous for their Mac loyalty. They were passing the buck to Apple when the problem is clearly their fault. There is some merit to their technical claims in the article. But, they also have implemented their browser poorly as well. On the CDRW issue I recommend an external but there are benefits to the internal. You can get a 32x external drive for $350 (www.formac.com). That is cheaper than the cost of the upgrade on the iBook and 4x as fast. Furthermore, CDRW's are not as durable as regular CD and DVD drives and you don't want to be replacing an internal drive down the line any sooner than you have to. Finally, the external CD drive will allow you to copy from drive to drive. The advantages of the internal are obvious, convenience. Actually, I recommend the internal DVD for the entertainment factor, the high likelihood of needing it for data in the future, and the resistance to copy protected CDs (many will play on a DVD drive that won't play on a CD drive). Order the $2059 custom built iBook on the website, 256 meg RAM (I think Canada RAM had them for about $150 but call around, maybe Apple is competitive now and you can get it built in) and an external burner fro around $300. You'll be over $2500 but not by much and it would be worth it if you are actually getting to keep this machine. BTW, did the budget include tax? -- Mac Canada is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Shop Canadian, visit Mantek Services <http://www.mantek.mb.ca> Low Prices That Will Keep YOU and Your MAC Smiling Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Mac Canada info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/mac-can.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-canada%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
