PC or Mac?

Question

My parents are buying me a laptop for a graduation present and though I've always wanted a mac and think it might be most helpful while I'm in college I'm really only familiar with PCs. I don't want to get to college and not have a presentation ready or something else like that because of some stupid mistake I could make by not being familiar with a mac. Which do you think will be better for college? A PC or a Mac? And should I go with what I'm familiar with or with the mac because it might be better for me?

I am majoring in journalism by the way.

Answer 1

If you are someone who does not like your computer to get frozen, then a Mac will be better. Mac are more expensive, but in the long run, the PC with the antivirus you have to pay for, it is gonna result more expensive.

Macs are good for graphics design and stuffs like that. They don't get a lot of virus. Macs are also the best designed computers on earth. It doe snot matter if you are a business person, Mac has Microsoft Office.

For college, mac are still good, you may use Microsoft Word, Power Point, Excel, but I don't thing they have Access. Macs are easy to use. I just needed some few practices in order to understand mac. every thing looks better in a Mac. For example, web sites and pictures.

I recommend a Mac.

Answer 2

Let's address a few cherished myths from the MS Fanboy club.

Mac don't get hacked or get viruses because it is an inherently more secure operating system based on Darwin Unix. Market share has nothing to do with it. Writing malware for a Mac has become something of the holy grail with the bad guys, and they haven't succeeded once, and believe me, they try. You may have read about contests aimed at hacking a Mac. In every one of them, they had to change the rules of the contest to make it artificially EASIER for the hacker to get into the Mac, because no one was getting it done.

Macs are good at graphics and media because they are better systems. It takes serious computer capability to do that kind of work. Business and financial applications don't even get a Mac breathing hard.

Apple does NOT make all the software for Macs. They make the operating system, the iLife suite (bundled with Macs), and a couple of others. I use Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign Dreamweaver, Acrobat Pro), MS Office (Word, Excel, etc), and a smattering of other apps for my work. It is true you can't walk into Best Buy and find Mac Apps, but you can go into Fry's, CompUSA, and of course any Apple Store. Mac apps are available online by the thousands.

I have the same apps at home, plus a few dozen games, including the best sellers.

They're very easy to upgrade, and come with pretty good hardware out of the box. The kind of set-up most PCs upgrade to. If you were to configure a Dell to the same specs as an iMac or MacPro, and add comparable software that Apple includes, that Dell would cost a little more than the Mac. You get what you pay for.

Peripherals are plug and play, and yes, Mac's come with multi-function mice now.

Macs can have multiple operating systems loaded. You can be running in native OSX, and run windowze through parallels (we have one at work doing this) so we can used the ONE PC app we need, that isn't available for a Mac (Publisher).

I've used both systems. Windowze is clunky and bloated by comparison. A pain in the cyber-butt.

Apple innovates.
MS Imitates.

Answer 3

Mac doesn't have the best world of word processing... so since you're majoring in journalism, I would get a Windows desktop.

Macs are much better for audio, movie, and DVD editing and compiling, so if you think you're going to do much of that get a Mac.

Mac laptops run exactly the way a Mac desktop would, although they are much more expensive.

I'd say familiarity is not an issue here. Mac has a whole quick tutorial sort of thing to get you used to Macs under an hour.

Answer 4

More promoting, a far better advertising workforce, practical layout, homogeneity. PC is very nearly any laptop now not a mac, and of path they're going to run the gamut in best/fee/layout. Therefore the one factor that Macs relatively have over each and every PC is that they may be able to run Apple proprietary program. There's additionally an photo factor that I'm noticing with Macs. Due to their branding and promoting Macs are recognized as "cooler" than their PC counterpart in distinct subcultures. I'm considering plenty of you set down 'virus loose' as one of the vital foremost execs of a mac. That nevertheless has to do with the Unix headquartered running procedure run at the Mac as a substitute than the Mac itself. If PC customers are so willing, they may be able to additionally get an endemic loose running procedure in one of the vital many Linux flavors.

Answer 5

What's your major? That might help you determine which to get. My choice would be get a Mac Laptop and get a PC desktop. The best of both worlds.

Besides, presentations, classwork, etc are made in Microsoft Office... whether you use it on a Mac or PC, it's the same program.

You really do need to take a look at the other programs you are going to be using and see if Mac versions are available, if not it may be smarter to go with a PC.

Answer 6

if you can use a pc, you can definitely use a mac! i think macs are a lot more fashionable nowadays, but when it comes to availability of different types of software, a laptop running windows wins by a mile.

same goes for games (if you like playing pc games). i have quite a few friends who have macs and it's quite often that they say 'hey, where did you get that? can it run on my mac?' and unfortunately a lot of stuff is not available for the mac :(

Answer 7

I have to say mac makes a better laptop. But i like pcs for a desktop. I think if you know how to run a mac then you will be fine with a pc.

Answer 8

With Intel processors, it is now possible to have the best of both worlds with a Mac...

While you're learning to use it, you can still use Windows and install it seperately for sure! But Mac OS X is one of the best operating systems, so if you don't need windows, I wouldn't even install it.

Macs are my recommendation! MacBooks are really nice looking and they are excellent machines, with a builit in camera as well as a Remote for iTunes and things... Enjoy :)

Check out Parallels ( http://parallels.com )and Boot Camp ( http://apple.com )

Answer 9

You will have more program choices and better compatibilities with a PC, and you will have a lot more help in the event of any computer problems. If you just want to be different, go Mac, but don't expect there to be a lot of experts around to help if you have computer or software compatibility issues...

Answer 10

PC is better than Mac.