iplayoboe

if all you are looking for is ease of compatability, Office2004 for Mac is all it takes. StudentTeacher edition (which gives you installs on 3 machines, or 4, i forget) is reasonably priced. All you have to do then is print your own stuff or check font resizing on a school computer if there are pcs in the printer lounge.

so save me

yeah i was wondering about that Office2004....

what do you mean i have to print my own stuff or check font resizing?

iplayoboe

when PCs get ahold of word & powerpoint documents from Macs they like to resize the font (usually make it bigger) so you have to make sure that if your font stayed size 12 (or whatever), especially if you have a page limit you are near. and on powerpoints you have to make sure that all the text stays within the page limit. I have never had a problem going from a PC to a Mac, but when I HAVE to do it on a PC, I just spend 10-15 minutes in the printer lab checking the presentation. Word documents take 30 seconds (10 for the body, 10 for footnotes and 10 for title/heading).
But if its a powerpoint you have to present you should be able to bring your own computer and hookup to the projector.
A bunch of people on my floor have Macs & printers and I bought a reem of printer paper so when I want to print something I bring a chunk of paper over (peace offering) and get my paper from my email on their machine and tada, no pc involvment necessary!

Irbis

I went to office depot to compare display sizes, I'll go with 15.4'' from Sony

oranda

Yeah, don't go below a 14.1" screen size unless you're willing to squint at the screen.

By the way, I was also going through the same dilemma- mac or pc. Mac is most useful for graphics or art majors because of its advanced multimedia functions (can produce professional video, make soundtracks, animate stuff, etc.) The thing about running a Windows platform on a Mac computer is I really think it's only for emergencies- not programs that you regularly use that are available only on windows. Both have adequate word processing (which I think is probably all you really need for college). I eventually went with a PC- Sony VAIO because all of my family's other computers are Windows-based. I found it a little excessive to get a Mac, even though I was attracted to it.

Oh yea, when I went to some apple stores, the salesmen took 20-30 min. showing me why macs were so much better than pc's. Be prepared for that.
A few of their reasons were (and i don't know if these are true):
-faster processor, and faster processing time. some argued that even though pc's had faster processors they had a slower processing time.
-little to no viruses because mac's alert you before downloading anything
-better programs (widgets, soundtraks, iMovie, and for more professional movie making- Final Cut Pro)

The reason I first wanted a mac was Final Cut Pro- a nicceee video editing software. It makes any amateur/home movie look like a professional film. My dad half-convinced me that Adobe Premiere for PC was more than enough for my film-editing needs. Let us know what you end up getting!! I'm still having second thoughts..

Irbis

NOD32+Agnitum Outpost Pro and your life is ok
That's all right, but don't forget, standard laptops from Apple have only 512GB Ram and 1.5-2GHz only. With these stats you will not be able to do stuff fast. For example what I'll order from Sony:
FE Series (with WinXP on it already)
15.4'' XBRITE HiColor (Sony by far has one of the best displays)
2GB RAM (I'll buy one not from Sony, theirs is too expensive)
NVIDIA® GeForce Go 7400
Intel Core Duo Processor T2500 (2 GHz)
100 GB Hard Disk Drive
DVD+R Double Layer /DVD+-RW Drive
Plus their backpack and larger battery, total of $2,200.

What will I get for $2,200 from Apple?
Intel Core Duo Processor 1.87Ghz
512MB of RAM
80GB hard drive
Backpack and WinXP Home

Their proccesors are almost same (2Hz only by 9% faster than 1.87Ghz), Hard drive is same, but 2GB vs 512MB...

desertmom

if i may weigh - D's Toshiba crapped out her 2nd year in college - multiple component parts broke down but more of a problem were the constant viruses she got through her school's server. It was a HUGE problem. So she opted for a 12" PowerBook G4 and has not looked back. She's not had one virus (although the hard drive had to be replaced already) and loves it. The smaller screen size is not a liability and it's easier to take to class as dcfca commented.
As soon as all my house PCs breakdown, we're going Apple. And son who is prolly starting 'SC in fall (or UCLA), will definitely switch to mac.
Hope this helps.

iplayoboe

yea, the day the home PC ate my 14 page Hamlet paper 3 times in a row was the day I swore I'd get a mac to go to college with. (It's kind of a problem when "save" and "print" commands get corrupted and trash the whole machine.)

Irbis

95% of all PC users not because of problems in WinXP or their laptops, but because of people that don't know how to use computers right!!! In 8 years of working with PC I had only 1 virus in my entire life. People are just so, let say not smart, they don't know how to use computers right. As soon as about 30-40% of people will have Mac, there will be plenty of viruses for it too.

iplayoboe

its not that we didnt know how to use it, my dad works with making PCs work for a living. It wasn't a virus, it was some sort of auto-immune disease.

so save me

is 12" really that small? i just measured my laptop right now and its currently 12"
.. i have a dell inspiron currently and it takes practically a half hour just to startup so i never turn it off anymore and it's ridiculously slow at opening apps.. PDFs are death as are word documents from the internet.. yay for firefox's "view as html".. but I still want to try out a new Mac.. I'm thinking just going with the iBook.. unless there's a good reason to go up. well can't be any slower than what i have now.

i like multitasking a lot also so i guess that kind of kills the computers i use.. multiple tabs.. aim tabs.. internet tabs..music...

dcfca

12 inch screen is not bad. I dunno why people think that. Like I said, it works really well. In some of the classes here I dont have a lot of deskspace and a small laptop helps with that.

Never had issues printing with my Mac Office stuff either, if you set the font to 12 pt font it will be 12 pt font.

I'm able to go onto the wireless network, etc. Not many compatibility issues have risen up yet.

As for dual booting windows, technically it's not there yet. A MacBook will be capable to do this but Windows Vista will have to be released. Also the Office for students at my school was only 10 dollars (the mac version)

Mac's can use Firefox, view pdf's with their own program (you can DL adobe if you want, it just runs a little slower)

For multi-tasking, haha the same thing happens to me. If you invest in a good amount of ram it doesn't end up being an issue. (I surf with like 30 tabs open, iTunes going, 20 aim tabs, etc. I only have 512 ram in my iBook so yeah, it does slow down.)

Oh and the never having viruses thing is great. Irbis was saying some stuff about how if you're smart it's a non-issue. He's right. But the thing is, now I dont even really have to worry. I got sent an AIM virus earlier this year but hey -- my Mac doesn't open .EXE files, so nothing happened. It's nice to not have to worry.

I like the points the people made above about not wanting to worry about the OS having to reformat. Look Irbis, Windows is a crappy operating system. When something goes wrong, you have to reformat. When you reformat you'll end up losing the programs you installed. With Mac, we don't use a registry so I can re-install the operating system but still have my files. It's just a major advantage for me since i'm going to be doing a lot of school working, taking notes in class, etc.

I dont want to have to worry about losing that info, I don't want to worry about installing stupid anti-virus software, they're so bloated. Same with firewall software.

Oh and guess what Irbis, Vista's going to suck too. It's not a brand new freshly coded OS, so it's going to carry with it a lot of the same windows flaws.

Irbis

Reformat is an issue for Windows. It's by far the only way how to clean/repair computers sometimes because users just create a mess with their PCs. I format my disc once-twice a year, but it takes me at most 4 hours to reinstall all of my stuff + install new updates. And btw, usually as soon as I get new computer, I recut hard drive into 3-4 virtual disks, 1st is for Windows files/drivers/programs only (12GB), 2nd-4th are for my files (drivers, pictures, notes, essays, music, movies, games, copy of important documents, my projects, and so on). So if I see something is wrong, I do "format c:" and still all my files are saved cuz they are on different virtual drive.

I know Vista will suck, but after about 5-6 months after release it'll be fine OS. As I said, it's not about how Microsoft is bad, it's about users that don't exactly know how to use system right. I have Agnitum Outpost as firewall (great thing), NOD32 (by far the best Anti-virus), RegCleaner and CCleaner. And I never let like 100s of programs to start-up with Windows, so for me PC is just great, I don't have any issues.

P.S.: few months ago I tried to improve my father's PC as best as I could. Initially starting time was 1:33, I dropped it to 30 seconds by cleaning registry/defrag/deleted useless files and so on. So as I said, if you're smart - you will not have any problems with any PC or OS (PC, Mac, OS/2, *nix, Win).

Irbis

It's not that Macs or Firefox (btw I use IE most of time and again, works fine for me) are almost perfect, it's that not many people use them so there is no point of writing viruses cuz then hackers have to learn the structure of OS. I bet as soon as they will become very popular, they'll be just like Windows.

I am sure in college I'll repair and fix a lot of laptops/notebooks, lol, just good at it

8 1/2

For those wondering about dual booting Windows XP on a Mac:

It is possible but there are still issues with hardware compatibility and it isn't something that someone with limited computer knowledge could figure out. You should wait for Vista if you want this option.

It is also possible to boot OSX on a PC but, you will have issues with this as well, on top of the fact that it is illegal. You can search around for components that will work with OSx86 (as some call it) and build yourself a new rig, but this still doesn't guarantee it will work flawlessly.

To oranda:

While Final Cut Pro is undeniably the best software only solution for film editing (and most cost effective as well, considering Avid rigs cost a friggin fortune), Adobe Premiere Pro is a solid solution for anyone in the consumer marker who wants to edit movies. Adobe rewrote Premiere and came out with Premiere Pro, which is their answer to Apple's FCP. It is similar in many ways, and will get nearly any job done (in your case).

Final Cut Pro is what many professionals use, along with the Avid, and I doubt you will take advantage of all that it has to offer. In short, I recommend Premiere Pro, it is a good program.

To Irbis:

It is common knowledge that Sony makes somewhat overpriced laptops. They are by no means poor products, although some have heat issues. Apples aren't much more expensive in comparison, considering they give significant educational discounts.

Regarding IE v. Firefox, it is also well known that there are serious security issues with Internet Explorer. I don't recommend using it at all, besides for Windows Updates.

Oh, and I agree with you about people having virus problems. If your computer has issues, it is probably something you did (or something you didn't do), rather than your computer.

And one last thing, Alienware makes extremely overpriced computers. If you want a computer for gaming, build it yourself for a fraction of the price, or have a friend build it.