iBook for Mrs. Mac?

[Mac the Knife]

Mrs. Mac wants a notebook for work. We don't want anything M$ and getting a Linux compatible notebook is still problematic out here.

The iBook Mac looks cute and just the job, but she's concerned about compatibility with her colleagues at work who use Word, Powerpoint and Access (I don't wanna buy M$ Office for OSX).

Are there problems, will we have to buy further expensive software?

Any advice from the Mac mavens out there?

Thanks

MTK

[goates]

Apple's new iWork programs seem to be able to open PowerPoint and Word files fine for basic documents. I have read about problems with some features not importing properly though. You could look into OpenOffice for OSX as well. The easiest, but not the cheapest, solution is to just buy MS Office for the Mac.

As far as I know there is no way to use Access databases on Macs without resorting to Virtual PC. Microsoft even recommends Filemaker if you want an easy to use personal database on your Mac.

goates