Hi,

Just try to help
  A. Yes. But you will hit a problem that web programmer using IE java script/VBscript kind of thing. Some government web site used that (And gov web most are okay). The worst case is you can't see it.
This is the first part of the story, but that's more than 1,000,000 ways to work around. Vmware a XP, IE emulator, dual boot and so on. I don't know if Firefox IE tab work on your Linux, if it does, it is the best solution.

REAL professional web site shouldn't have this problem at all!! Try surf a big corporate web and tell me if you can find this problem. Then you know what's the real problem.

LINUX CAN DO EVERYTHING. Just matter of how good you are. The problem is not the software, it is how advance is the user. I heard few of my friend say Linux can't do this or do that "10 years" ago, but they change their mind when they start learning the Linux way of doing thing. If they learn of course.

It depends on what you want to do. Choose an OS is like choosing your car. Some car save oil, some car run faster, some better warranty. If you want to drive your car with your new gf go for the outlook. If you want to travel far for your gf, go for the save money one. If you want to rush to gf's office then choose a car run really fast.

This doesn't solve most of your problem? Try this Ubuntu Linux. Most people find it really user friendly to other distro. http://ubuntu.sg/ . The strength of this Ubuntu is the wireless network connection driver is really stable. It solve most of the laptop user headache.

You are more rich than we thought? Alternative is to consider is Apple Mac. It is same as Ubuntu which is a Debian distro like OS and BSD like OS but hell much more user friendly ever.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Cheng Lim