BassDad

Sibelius (and Finale, for that matter) should be a non-issue because the same CD contains both the PC and Mac software, so you already have what you need to run it on a Mac if you were to switch. Sonar is a different story since it is not available for Mac as far as I have seen.

mythmom

S is a composition major and swears by Mac and Sibelius. I think some still use Finale, but he is religious in his allegiance.

cartera45

Thought I would update here. My D went to orientation yesterday and we ended up ordering a MacBook Pro through the school while there. After talking to a bunch of kids about the Dells and the Macs, it just seemed to make sense. One of the only things that cut in favor of the Dells was the warranty that included accidental damage but a call to my insurance company put that aside. They will cover it for pretty much anything but loss. The school also has a loaner program if they are in for repair. Having to deal with Vista was a factor too. It arrives in a couple of weeks so she'll have time to figure it all out. Coincidentally, my old laptop died on Friday so I'll be getting one too - not nearly as fancy as her Mac since I just use it for email, but hose machines have great timing don't they?

opera09

mac is the music laptop brand, i highly suggest it, finale is the best composition program out there.

cjm

S going to Eastman decided on the MacBook Pro also. So far is extremely happy with it! Says "once you go Mac, you never go back!" Our next decision will be IWork or Microsoft Office/Mac.

Bassoon player

Would the Macbook 2.4 GHz be sufficient for a music major or is a Macbook Pro necessary?

BassDad

First, look at the Information Technology section of the website for the school or schools in question. That should tell you 1) whether Macs are supported there at all and 2) their recommended minimum configuration.

Next, consider what you want to do with the machine. If you are mainly using it for running iTunes and Safari, Finale or some other notation program, and writing the occasional paper then either laptop will provide sufficient computing power, provided you do not skimp on RAM. If you are going to be doing things that are CPU intensive, like recording or processing multiple audio tracks simultaneously or working with any sort of video, then you will want the fastest machine you can afford and might even consider a desktop over a laptop because you generally get a better price to performance ratio that way.

Hunt

Update for us: we ended up getting the Rain computer, and have been impressed with its power. We decided on a PC because my son already had Sibelius and Sonar, and the Rain because it (supposedly) is optimized for recording. The only problem he had was Vista-related: after loading some old software (a game) the computer wouldn't boot because the BIOS had been changed. Rain customer service was very helpful and identified the problem, which was easily fixed.

guitardad

I hate to bring our family's reality into this but at between 2G and 2.5G for a Macbook Pro with only a 15" monitor, our DS can have one after he wins a Grammy.

I never skimped on instruments for him but if the Vista operating system is a little less stable and a little slower, he'll have to live with it for a while.

cartera45

D received her Mac and is loving it. She has a male chip in her some place because she insists on figuring everything out on her own without consulting a manual, website, etc. Once she stopped right clicking for everything, it was pretty simple. I'm working away on my little Dell and feeling a little jealous.

A question - does she need any antivirus software or not? I haven't found any definitive answer but how can it hurt?

ImperialZeppelin

MACs are more secure than PCs. However, the reason that there aren't many viruses for MACs is that most virus writers are in it for the thrill of taking out major networks, companies and 10s of millions of computers. Since PCs vastly outnumber MACs, there is little "thrill factor" in writing MAC viruses for hackers.

Just recently, MAC introduced some new "super security" feature and a hacker who was tired about hearing how "secure" MACs were wrote a successful virus within 48 hours.

So, the !st Commandment for anyone owning a computer, either PC or MAC, is "Thou shalt have a good and constantly updated virus protection program."

cartera45

Imperial - is there any difference in choosing an antivirus program for a Mac as opposed to a PC. I am using a free program - Avast - on my PC that I am very pleased with. I also use Spybot. Is there any reason not to use the same things on the Mac?