Digital photos are a must for her. The PC she has is fantastic as Windows XP does a much better job of it than any other Microsoft OS. Hell, our television (Sony WEGA) has a memory slot and can display pictures. It runs Linux!
BTW, the HP 3500 color laser printer does a great job of printing photos. Because it is a flat printer and not a rotating drum type, it doesn't crease the paper and can print 12ppm color. It does flatten glossy paper due to the heat involved. Maybe there is a glossy paper designed for lasers?
My wife gave me a Sony digital for Christmas (and insisted that I open it early so I could learn to use it before we open the rest of the presents with the kids). I opened the box, put in batteries and took pictures. Pluged the USB cord into my G4 laptop and imported the pictures into iPhoto. No learning curve, no extra software needed. No instructions needed for the computer. Taking the pictures was harder than the computer part.
BTW, the HP 3500 color laser printer does a great job of printing photos.
We have the HP 4450N. I am not sure I can justify a second color laser printer, but I will look at the 3500 in the store.
From reading, I think the best consumer color prints are made by ink jets on special paper. The truth is I hardly make any prints any more--just email digital photos to the relatives. My wife posts pictures on her website, but again no real printing.
I had a desktop PC for some time before buying my Mac. My Sony digital camera was an absolute pain in the neck to use with Windows. Installing drivers (which sometimes were the wrong ones), plugging and unplugging the USB cable, system hangups, you name it. I brought home my iBook laptop, plugged in my digital camera and turned it on, and the computer automatically recognized it. It opened iPhoto and began the upload process without me having to lift a finger. I used to wait months to upload photos because of the hassle, and now I upload them as soon as I take them.
I worked for 2.5 years in college doing on-campus networking and tech support. I know my way around computers, particularly PCs. Just because I can handle problems doesn't mean I should have to! My 14" iBook has never crashed or acted funny in the 7 months I've had it - and that's with being on and networked 24/7. I have all of the Windows apps I could desire (with the exception of the Sims 2, but I digress).
I'm typing this now from my living room couch, on my iBook. It's wirelessly networked and gets great battery life, so we do a lot of surfing from the comfort of the living room. :-)
I use a Dell laptop at work and in fairness it's actually not terrible. I'd be happier with a faster processor and it does lock up more often than I'd like. There is a price differential to consider. I compared my iBook with a number of Windows-based laptops and with my fiance's student discount with Apple, the Mac ended up being only a little more expensive than a comparable PC. It's just a terribly intuitive and easy computer, and after dealing with my PC at work I'm glad to come home to something that I don't have to struggle with.