I checked out the Home section at http://www.dell.com/home/desktops and the cheapest I could find was Insiron 531 for $249 with Windows XP Home. Add Office Home and 15 month subscription to McAfee and it goes up to $487.00!
Who has around $500.00 in cash sitting around for an entry level computer?
Why not dust off that old computer in your basement and install shiny new Linux Mint on it? Unlike crappy XP Home, it’s a real OS and a polished one too! You can do all your basic stuff with Free Software that comes pre-installed. Email, IM, Office, Music, Photos, Internet Browsing, File Sharing, skype, CD/DVD Burning. All Free! Add to that the fact that there are no viruses to worry about! Here’s my short list of things why you’d want to run Linux:

1. No Viruses. Almost all viruses are written for Windows.
2. Free Software. Never pay upgrade fees
3. Runs great on Older hardware. Windows would simply choke on older hardware.
4. All your essential productivity software comes pre-installed.
5. Although XP/Vista give you impressions of multiple users per computer – they’re only skip deep. With Linux, you get a truly multi-user computer. Mom’s files are completely safe from Kids running amok!
6. Easy sharing of files between Linux and Windows computers.
7. If your hardware is somewhat newer, you can have your cake and eat it too – by running Windows inside Linux as a virtual machine! Again, free!

Give it a try. You’ll not be disappointed. Even if you don’t have old computer lying around, you can pick one on your local craigslist for real cheap.