Being that this laptop is probably 15 years old, I'm doubt the USB slots are going to benefit much from those high speed drives. They are USB3 at least.
Software-suite wise, I suspect that won't be a problem long-term but I know we'll have to look closely at least a few of our more complex documents - such as resumes - to make sure they can be converted properly. My wife is a spreadsheet maniac too, though I expect most won't take special handling. Being able to boot back to Windows in a pinch will be beneficial though.