I've had one of the first white iBooks - 12" 500MHz G3 for about 3 years now and it's held up pretty well. Only major problem was when the display backlight crapped out about a year ago, turned out the power wire had got caught in the hinge and had sheared through it by opening and closing it. Was a pretty easy fix fortunately.

Unless your eyesite is poor I'd recommend the 12" over the 14" as the resolution is the same, but the 12" is so much smaller. The video out is also crippled to 1024x768 on both which is a shame. Need to go to the 12" Powerbook to over come that one.

But for the money the 12" iBook is strorming value. We've got about 8 at my company and they've all held out really well apart from my display problem above although I've not had my hands on a G4 one yet.

Phil