Should I convert to a Mac....convert me?

[KatieMac]

Over Christmas my hard drive died....virus related
I reg get annoying blue screens - that mean I turn off & start again
My dad has got a horrendous virus and been out of action for 2 days..still not fixed (and his clients pay him hundreds a day - so he has lost a fortune)

I am considering a Macintosh......but know nothing. My brother swears by them...but is in Sweden so it will cost less to ask Q here and discuss the answers with him when I have facts.

Everyone uses Word/Excell etc can they read any Mac docs? Can I read their docs?
Can I still email/mumsnet/banking?
I use MS Money....is there a reasonable alternative (its April - I need to start this yrs accounts soon - well when I've finished last years)?
I'm haveing a website written - will it still work?
How much will it cost me?
Will I need to change my ISP?

As you can tell I'm fairly illiterate when it comes to puters.....so HELP pleease

Nappy, I THINK you have to buy MS office (Word/Excel etc) for MAC, but my iMac is a year old now, and things may have changed in what Apple provide by way of software

Or you could try Neooffice - a port of OpenOffice - which is free!

If you just want simple WP/SPREADSHEETS then look no further than Google with its browser based solutions - I think they are pretty good for casual use. But you have to use Firefox as a browser - Safari isn't supported

so if i want to open word documents on a MAC i can use this neo office thing?

2nd question which is better safari or firefox?

or is opera better?

You can open Word documents in Appleworks, which comes standard with your Mac. The only issue is if you want to amend them and send them back to people working on PCs, then it is more difficult to get right and so worth getting Office for the Mac (I spend a lot of my time passing stuff back and forth like this, so I did invest in it).

I think that Safari is by far the best browser - you can do 'tabbed' browsing, and it hardly ever crashes. It should also be standard issue on any Mac you get.