Don't mind tinkering with it for a few hours, don't want to be pulling my hair out for a few days. Never installed Linux before and I'm not stupid, but not a computer super-geek either. Hardware is a couple years old (a tablet, probably)

Don't have it with me, but the main candidate is an XP running tablet that is two or three years old (because it is very light and portable). It's got WiFi.

Plus I WANT to test out Linux anyway, and see if it works for her, so it's two birds with one stone. Also, the laptop would be more portable for her, so she could have her breakfast anywhere in the house...

The reason she boots every morning is because she thinks she will "break" the computer by leaving it on. Not sure if she is afraid of malware or thinks the computer is suffering 'wear and tear' in hibernation mode, but she just thinks its safer to turn it off. And before you say "educate her" - she doesn't listen to me when her 'intuition' tells her something.