It's been a long time

[Rob]

If you still have any PowerPC Mac hardware lying around you could try out MorphOS for free and try out Cinnamon writer which offer some compatibility with the outside world.

Libre Office is being ported to OS4 but you'd need more reasons than an office package to  justify shelling out the price of hardware.  Emulation through UAE and the 30 Euro price tag for the OS might serve reasonably cheap evaluation of OS4.

One of the members of these forums, Timothy Deters AKA Terminills, has the rights to Softwood's products and work is currently in progress on updating Final Writer.  I think compatibility with the outside world is on the cards and ports are planned for AROS, OS4, MorphOS and 68K.

AROS is free to try if you have a suitable X86 system handy.

[Rob]

Thanks for the info on Cinnamon Writer. Unfortunately it requires OS4, and I just can't justify the cost (nearly a grand) to get a machine that can run it. Maybe in the future, but not at this point. If I wanted to make it easy I would get a linux machine and be done with it, but honestly, I really don't like the look and feel of Linux. Personal preference I guess you could say.

I am honestly looking to spend around $200 (maybe more, but not much more) on this ... I guess I will call it a project. In total. For $1000 I could look into a lot of other options. The PDF viewer, or lack of one, isn't a deal breaker, just a nice to have. I don't really need a web browser. Again, nice to have, but not needed.

Cinnamon Writer is available for MorphOS too.  

You can get a cheap MacMini G4 1.5Ghz from the Ebay link below.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262936104622

MorphOS is free to download and try.  It slows down after 30 minutes and requires a reboot.  You can get a keyfile which removes this restriction for 79 Euro.  That's well below your $200 budget.

For an Amiga 500 system I'd look at getting an ACA500 Plus card from Individual computers.  It costs 129.96 Euro and is excellent value for money since you get a 14Mhz 68000 which can be overclocked to upto 42Mhz, 8MB fast RAM, 8MB Flash, 2 CF slots.  You also get a lot of software built pre-installed on the flash consisting of Kickstart 1.2, 1.3 and 3.1 ROMs, OS3.1 disk set and Action Replay.

https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/produkt-details/product/ACA500plus.html

An A500+ is probably the best A500 you can get since it comes with 1MB chipmem and can be expanded the 2MB chip, is also comes with a Kickstart 2.04 ROM to add to the ROMs that come with the ACA card.  Make sure it is working properly and as soon as you get it remove the battery since these are prone to leaking, and clean up anything that may have leaked onto the board.
Normal A500s don't have a clock onboard so there's no leaky battery to worry about if you go for one of those models.

An 500 and ACA card will take you a fair amount over $200 unless you get really lucky but it's the cheapest option if you want more than just a floppy based system with a limited amount of RAM.