Best option for family computer?

The imac served you well. Consider another Apple. They're ruggedly made and fairly trouble free.

Food for thought:

You mention that some users of the new computer are 2nd graders. Perhaps, a laptop is not the best choice.

In any event; a Happy New Year to you and your family.

Be well and do good.

TomR

would you consider an inexpensive laptop (maybe a refurb) for the adults? and a good desktop for the family? I would assume it could still be done...but about 10 years ago it was possible to have a computer do both windows and mac.

I'm a big fan of keeping kids and adult computers separate. The last thing you want, is for the kids to end up getting malware on the computer by accident, and then you loosing all your work, passwords, what not.

Our kids got their own mid range laptop around that age, and it's great for me to not have to worry about it, and also being able to simply wipe it back to factory clean when things go awry.

After some more thought I agree that it would be best to keep the kids stuff separate from ours. We likely will be getting another iMac but still want a laptop for the kids so they can do their thing in a well-supervised area (i.e., kitchen while we're preparing dinner). We've seen some good deals on Dell Inspiron laptops, but we are technologically-challenged and not sure what's what. My main requirements are a 15" screen, preferably touch screen, and enough oomph to not freeze up on the kids if they forget to close tabs. Is something like this sufficient for basic web-surfing, etc.? http://www.microcenter.com/product/470377/Inspiron_15_3000_Series_156_Laptop_Computer_-_Black

That model will be sufficient for a year or two. It may be perfect since it costs so little.

best guess is that it will be a little slow on some sites, but for a typical person not a problem. I am on a $350 windows 8, spent a few hours per day streaming netflix without a problem trying to get y moneys worth since I paid for a month just to see fuller house...I"ve had it about 23 months and typically have it running about 8-12 hours per day...videos, documents, games, etc