Apple doesn't "sell" OS X separately. You have to buy the computer with the software directly from them. You can probably compare an Apple PC to the Xbox 360. They both include a browser and other software but you can't buy the software without the console.

I don't know about your mother but mine started with a $150 Linux computer. I did set up Thunderbird and Firefox for her and she didn't have too many problems with it.
After a year a telephone system was connected to her computer that only ran under Windows and I switched her over to Windows XP. She noticed that it looked different but it also worked the same way since she still used Firefox and Thunderbird. She had more Problems with XP because some of the things installed on Linux like a PDF viewer wasn't installed by default but that can easily installed.
The next PC for her will probably be again a Linux PC since the telephone system died a year ago and I'm sure that she will be able to use it like she was able to use it a few years ago.

I'm a German living in the USA and I had to renew my passport just a few months ago. The last time I could just do the passport renewing by mail but now with the biometric fingerprints you have to drive to one of 5 locations in the USA of which most are in the southern parts. Luckily I was only 5 hours away from the place but there is a high chance that people will have to travel through a few states to get their passport renewed now. At least I only have to do that again in 7 years.

Plant some fast growing trees and you will see savings within a few years. You might be able to paint the roof with a white ceramic paint made for roofs (depends on the roof type) to save a good amount of money. Those solutions are cheaper than adding more insulation and replacing windows.

Big homes and bad insulation causes so high electric costs. My mother just moved out of an old mobile home into a small stone house (two children moved out and house prices were finally lower). The electric cost of around $250-450 is now at around $100 for her in a stone house instead of a bad insulated mobile home. It will be interesting to see how much she will have to pay in the summer when the a/c has to run more but I bet it won't be more than $200 which would still be lower than the best time of the year in the mobile home.

Sounds pretty normal such a high failure rate. I went to a community college and every semester the classes got smaller and fewer of the higher classes got tough than the intro classes. After that at a University it was the same way. At the beginning multiple full classes but at the end maybe 15 people left and those higher classes were offered only every second semester instead of every semester.
I believe that people just find out that they studied something that they didn't really have interest in and changed majors to other programs. I guess Computer Networking sounds cool first but boring when people take the classes and I know a lot of people that think that it is boring.

I believe that the AM2+ socket motherboards will last for a long time. If I remember right will the AM3 CPUs be compatible with the AM2 and AM2+ motherboard as the AM2+ CPUs were compatible with AM2 motherboards while only small features were missing when using an older socket with a newer CPU.

I have a friend that will start his Master degree in Computer Engineering in Germany at a University in 2 months. The University offers classes in English and German. Not only is it cheaper for him to study in Germany instead of staying in Florida but he also said the school offers much better classes than what he found within the US because only half is theory. I guess in 2 years I will find out if his choice was a good one.

The website of the school is http://www-englisch.fh-hof.de/

Just buy an Acer Aspire One with the 6 cell battery (or buy a 9 cell battery). The 6 cell battery version last 5-6 hours and only uses 13 Watt. If that isn't enough than you can put some solar panels on the back and you can probably double the time.

INAL, but I took 2 law classes for my Master degree (in IT).

When you buy something and it doesn't present you with the license before the purchase than you bought the product but you normally still have to click "I agree" before using the software. Which means you are not bound to the license until that point. You can resell the product even if the license says you can't if you didn't click "I agree".
The problem now would be returning the product. In some states it went to court to decide if you can return bought products if you didn't agree with the license. In some of those states you are by law allowed to return the software and in some you aren't. I don't remember in which state it went to court with which outcome and in which states it is still a gray area.
In the case of Psystar, I'm assuming they have to agree to the license to install the software or at least the users of Psystar computers after first starting the computer.