Mac Mini possible convert...

["Paul Gordon" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm still giving serious consideration to getting a Mac Mini, especially
now that the current kitchen PC is starting to seriously annoy me with
its poor performance (mini ITX PC, with a 1GHz processor)



Want to know about potential conversion issues with relation to SWMBO
acceptance of the new interface, and especially in regard to her main
use of this machine which is for email, and browsing. Currently she uses
(and likes) Outlook 2003, connected to our in-house Exchange 2003 server
and IE6 for web.



I know that Office is available for Mac, - however, that's not like to
be a purchase I'll want to make just for 1 machine, - Office has never
been particularly cheap to buy...



What (if any) mail client is provided out of the box with a mac mini, -
and what else is available as either freeware or reasonable cost? - is
there anything that provides the full PIM features of Outlook? -
anything that supports a MAPI connection to Exchange? (I don't currently
have either POP or IMAP enabled on my Exchange server).



She also uses other Office 2003 apps on this machine, - mainly Excel -
what are the options for accessing existing XLS files on the mac?



Any/all info gratefully accepted!



Paul G.



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