Is such a thing possible?

My mother is about 500 miles away. She's 67 and isn't as sharp as she used to be. She wants Internet access. She has a 900 MHz Athlon PC running some version of Windows (probably 98) that I gave her a few years ago. I'll be visiting her early next month. She's out in the sticks so I don't yet know what broadband access is available, nor whether it's worth the expense.

My concerns are that if I set something up for her, she'll end up breaking some bit of software and nothing will work within an hour after I leave.

Ideally, I'm sure she'd like Windows as that's what she has some experience with and she has some Win software that she plays with.

Is any PC OS yet suitable for this application? Being able to repair things remotely via dialup is a possibility, I suppose, but I assume most of the common broadband connections frown on allowing remote access to a home machine.

I think my options are:

1) Setup Winders with a bootable rescue CD that lets her reinstall everything if something goes wrong.
Pluses:
a) It's familiar and she can keep her old software.
b) It's Winders so it must be good.
c) Uses existing hardware, minimizes the cost.
Minuses:
a) I don't have a machine that I can build a rescue CD from that has her software.
b) Even reinstalling things might be beyond her abilities.
c) Once she's on the Internet, it'll probably be infected in short order (especially if it's on broadband).

2) Setup Mepis and try to lock it down so that she can't break anything.
Pluses:
a) It's more secure and easier to install.
b) Wine and/or Crossover Office and/or Win4Lin may let her run her existing Win programs.
c) Infection should be more difficult.
d) Uses the existing hardware, minimizing the cost.
Minuses:
a) If something does go wrong, I don't have enough knowledge to fix Mepis remotely (even if I could somehow connect to the machine - see above). But the CD would be right there to reinstall if necessary.
b) She may be convinced that it isn't Winders so it's not good enough and have someone "help" her reinstall Winders.

3) Get a MacMini and set it up so that she can use it with her PC monitor, mouse and keyboard with a KVM switch. She'd still have her PC software, but the Mac would be used for Internet access (web and e-mail is all I think she wants). (I suppose they could even be networked to some extent with an Ethernet crossover cable, but that would invite lots of mischief.) Unfortunately, the Mini uses a USB keyboard, so an adapter or USB KVM would be required. (Apple wants $129 ! for [link|http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=T5139LL/A|this] one.)

Pluses:
a) Relatively inexpensive new hardware, decent bundled applications.
b) More resistant to viruses than Winders.
c) Small footprint, unobtrusive.
Minuses:
a) Not Winders - she may not like it.
b) May need upgraded memory for reasonable performance.
c) Her existing PC software won't work, so additional new software may be needed driving up the final cost.
d) If she does something to the Internet software, I won't be able to fix it remotely. Reinstalling may be problematic.
e) Several hundred dollars.

There's Warp too, but that has issues as well - mainly it's too much like Winders so "helpful" people may try to do things with it and break it, and the fact that it's not Winders-software compatible.

We also have a StarMax 5000 with a 300 MHz G3, but it's running OS 9 and only has 160 MB of RAM (full up) so OS X isn't an option and it won't be useful for modern web surfing.

I'm dreading any decision because I figure there will be some way for her to break it. I'm leaning toward #3 but if there were some way to lock down her existing PC I'd be willing to try it (I really don't want to shell out $500-600+ for a new box if there's another reasonable way). Some questions:

1) Is there an expensive KVM that works with the Mini using either a USB KVM or adapters to a regular PS/2-style KVM?
2) What's the minimum configuration you would recommend for a box that you wouldn't want to touch for a year or more? Is 1.25 GHz/512 MB/40 GB - the [link|http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html|base machine] that comes with a modem - enough for Tiger?
3) What software would you recommend for web browsing (that takes a reasonable assortment of plugins) and e-mail? Antivirus? Spyware and rootkit blockers? Is Mail.app and Safari the way to go, or is Thunderbird and Firefox up to snuff for most uses now?
4) Is .mac worth the cost? Having a place where we could share files would be nice.
5) Spice - how are your folks in Mexico handling their Mac?

Any comments or information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Cheers,
Scott.