Mac or PC? Buying a new laptop for college, need specific suggestions.?

Question

I'm torn between buying a Mac or a PC. I've heard that Macs have awesome reliability and are just overall easy and fun to use. I have been a Windows PC user my entire life; Windows is flexible but annoying. There are two things that hold me back from buying a Mac: one, the fact that I use a lot of software that is Windows-only. For example, I bought Adobe CS2 a few years ago for Windows on an academic license (fairly expensive even still) and use it to edit a lot of my artwork (and create digital artwork). I also purchased Macromedia Dreamweaver--I have a personal website I maintain. I also like to download all sorts of random programs and utilities around the internet (which probably contribute to the death of my Windows computer, but I enjoy myself). I also happen to be a gamer. Now I know Macs can run Windows natively, but that brings me to the second thing that holds me back, price. Why buy a Mac if it sounds like I'm going to be doing mostly everything on Windows?

It's sounding like PC, but one thing which is extremely tempting is GarageBand. I am pretty much drooling at the opportunity to use it. Additional question: Do Macs get outdated as often as PCs do? Are there Mac versions of the programs in parens or does Mac already come with some of these things included? (mIRC, WinRar, FileZilla) I've been doing a lot of thinking the past few days, and I have realized that I am probably not going to have a lot of time in college to do gaming, that I haven't done a lot of gaming recently (because I'm bored with my games in general and haven't felt like putting any money towards games; the last game I bought sits on the shelf and hasn't had that much use), and that the only two applications I really need Windows for are Photoshop and Macromedia Dreamweaver, which are for purely personal interests. I plan on majoring in political science at Bryn Mawr College next year, so; I dunno, I really don't want my laptop crashing, Mac feels like a better invstmnt

Answer 1

I personally would go with a PC, and based on what you need it for, it's probably the best idea for you as well.

You could definitely just buy a mac and load windows on it, but that would end up costing you more most likely, as you'd have to buy the OS separately.

Answer 2

You have the same questions most people do when considering joining the Mac Community.

I would love to give a plug for Macs here, but I can't honestly bring myself to do it. Unless you have experience using Macs, I would not suggest one to get you through the most important educational period in your life. A PC will ultimately be the better choice for you, because of all of the great applications you can run on it, without any restrictions. I would suggest using the money you would save from buying a Mac into getting a high-end notebook with Windows XP installed. Vista is a fantastic OS, but I would be concerned with current problems it is experiencing with compatibility with all applications. Companies are already switching back to pre-installing XP on their hardware. Whatever you decide, make sure you're happy with it. As far as the machine itself goes, I assume you have some sort of music player (iPod, Zune, something else) and therefore have a music program on the computer. Here's an important thing to remember: EVERYTHING TAKES SPACE. You need to get at LEAST a 100GB hard drive and at LEAST 1GB of memory on your notebook. And since it looks like you run a lot of editing software, 2GB of memory wouldn't hurt. Memory=more applications running at the same time, and fast!

So I really hope that helps.

If you have experience with a Mac or the Mac OS (which it doesn't look like you do) then I would suggest a MacBook or MacBook Pro. However, I do not know what type of software your college requires, and I would not recommend taking a chance on buying a $1,000 notebook only to not have it run your programs! Yes, you can buy Desktop Parallels or download Boot Camp to run Windows, but that goes back to your last question, which would be why buy the Mac in the first place?

Only buy a Mac if you're going to go hardcore Apple, with no regrets or looking back. Otherwise it would not be cost-efficient to buy a Mac just to run Windows on it.

Answer 3

I really suggest a pc for a laptop for school. Even though I'm a mac lover It sounds like your a "windows native".. During school you probably want to save as much cash as possible. I used a mac g4 when I went to school, which was top of the line at the time. I still use it to this day. I also have a G5 and Mac pro for my design work. I just recently built a gaming pc..
which is also my public use computer. DO NOT USE WINDOWS whatsoever for any reason. I run linux on my pc and have had no problems without windows. But as I said before I love macs, but for a student a pc is affordable and versatile..
When you get out of school get a mac!

theres nothing a mac cannot do!

Answer 4

If you are not into creating music , video editing or CAD programs professionally then go for the PC. Remember battery life is only needed when there is no power sources around. You can run a laptop with the power cord connected indefinitely. Power consumption from a laptop also depends on what you are running on your laptop.

Answer 5

This is mostly in reply to Onikazi, because he has some big errors in his story that I would like to correct.

Before I do so, for what you told us, stay with Windows. If it's worked fine for you so far, it will stay fine. I use a macbook and a windows desktop, so I use the best of both worlds.

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"People will tell you Macs are better at multimedia and graphics. Windows and Linux can do everything a Mac can do, just as well as a Mac can do it. In fact Mac OS X is based on a Linux like distribution called FreeBSD."

I guess people in the publishing and design business have no reason to mostly use macs, huh? Also very funny that you claim the Mac OS is based on an OS whose development started about 20 years after the first Mac OS was developed.

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"It is easy for Mac to include all of your drivers into the Kernel because your supported hardware options are limited (if you try to install an unsupported piece of hardware things might not work right or at all)".

It of course depends on what kinda hardware you are talking about, but I've been able to interchange a lot of hardware on my desktop machine to my macbook. Everything works just fine. Even my old Microsoft mouse works hoooked up on the laptop.

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"Most Mac users don't install security software on their computers and have no idea if they are infected with bots, keyloggers, and other things that operate behind the scenes without harming the system."

On a mac the default setting of the OS is that you have to enter an admin password for ANY kind of install on the system or the execution of scripts. That makes it a lot harder to unknowingly have crap installed on your machine. Unless you don't know what you are doing and authorize everything and anything. Also do a basic search on virus statistics and see the hard truth on how there simply are way less virusses that can infect Mac OS. (98% are for Windows).

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"However if you want to play the latest and greatest games you will have to use Windows."

Depends on which game. A lot of publishers are making Mac versions nowadays. For example Blizzard's World of Warcraft runs just fine natively on a Mac. If you want, you can run Windows on it anyways using Bootcamp.

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" Linux has tons of free software for web development and networking."

So does Mac.

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You advice her to try out Linux. In her question she says one of the main reasons she is leaning towards a Windows machine is because she wants to use Adobe CS2. How hard do you think it is to get CS2 running on a Linux machine by a complete novice to that OS?

Stick with Windows, it really sounds like your best choice at the moment. You can get CS2 for the Mac, but I -think- that means buying a new license. I went to Adobe Live! a few weeks ago in Amsterdam and the presenters from Adobe all used Macs to present the new CS3.

Answer 6

PC. Let's be practical, you've been a PC person all your life. Also, since you use programs that are exclusively for windows,using a Mac would be a bad idea. I think you like the Mac for now since it seems fun and all and it's new to you.I'm not saying you shouldn't try out new stuff (which you should once in a while) but not now. Choose something that suits you for now.

Answer 7

PC. Base on your requirements, you probably needs PC. Because the number of applications availability, I mean you can download or install lot of applications that you need. Some games does not runs on Mac.

Answer 8

You have it figured out more software, less expensive, faster for windows use. PC is the better choice.

Answer 9

get a macbook pro n get parreles n a copy of windows. install parelles in os x and u can run windows natively inside osx as a virtual machine. unlike other virtual machines its rly fast n with the new patch u can play windows games on it. so u can run all ur windows apps inside os x.

Answer 10

it sounds like you just need to stick to pc. in you case, i would see no reason to shell out cash for a mac that you'll hardly utilize. sorry for lack of info, doesn't sound like anything you didn't already know lol.