Used PowerBook G4 or new Windows Laptop

Hi,
I've got a very difficult question.. but let met first explain the situation!
My girlfriend want's to buy a new laptop. She got an offer from a friend:

A three year old 15'' powerbook g4 with 1,5 Gb Ram and some extra software (MS Office 2004, Toast 7, FileMaker, Adobe CS 2) and Mac OS X Tiger installed for 500€ (about 636.5$).

The problem is, there is no garanty left for this notebook. It's about three years old. She's not a power user and needs the notebook only for surfing, mailing, photos, music and text editing purposes.

To my question.. I really need some good reasons for accepting this offer, not only the regular "windows is bad" opinion.

Please let me know your reasons for buying or buying not this powerbook.

Kind regards
gerb

The PowerBook is an outdated computer with an architecture that even Apple will not support anymore as soon as 10.6 comes out. Seeing as the same money will get you a newer, better Windows notebook, there is no reason to consider the PowerBook for even a moment unless your girlfriend is an OS X user and doesn't want to switch to Windows.

I'm going to assume based on the age of the machine, it's the 1.5 GHz version. If that is the case, the machine will be more then enough for her uses. As long as she doesn't need the latest and greatest hardware/software, it will be a solid rock for all she will do.

I agree with December - it will easily do what you've said she will use it for. If she or you are interested in what the Mac OS is like, this would be a less expensive way to take the plunge than buying a new Mac. If you browse around this and other forums to see what switchers are finding the experience to be, you'll see that her chances of liking what she discovers are quite good. If it's been handled and will be handled in a non-rough way, it will last and work well for several more years (perhaps only needing a battery).

I just bought a new 17 in. MBP today, haven't even set it up yet. I have a 5 year old 17 in. PB, the best laptop I ever had, to tell the truth the only reason I got the new one is because it's new. I never had a problem with this laptop, the fans rarely come on and when they do there quiet. I would guess the user is getting rid of the PB because Toast 7, FileMaker, Adobe CS 2 must run slow on the PB. The PB is cheap enough to get the Mac feel, as far as support, who cares. There are still millions of ppc users and updates will still be around for years to come.

Yea there is no contest there. I would rock a 1.5 powerbook over many of todays new windows lappy's.

i would take the powerbook, but only if it was in good condition and had been treated well,

i would also try to reinstall tiger, and keep it to the basic apple software (getting rid of adobe ETC)

Normally I would say go with the POwerbook, but that price might be a bit high, on ebay for around £450 (500 euros) you can pic up an early intel Macbook

macbook, ibook, imac, sony vaio items at low prices on eBay.co.uk