<p>I like the fact that Macs start up faster, rarely get viruses (don’t like wasting time troubleshooting), and have long battery life; however, I have to take a course in C++ programming for my major and I was wondering if would be able to do this on a mac.</p>
<p>“Macs start up faster”</p>
<p>not really. You have to remember that PCs have hundreds of different brands and thousands of different factors which determine speed, quality, etc. For example, my laptop with Vista (which everyone hops on the hate bandwagon) boots up faster than my friend’s Macbook Pro. It mostly depends on the number of startup programs you have and your processor’s speed. </p>
<p>Oh and as for battery life, look at latest Dell and Toshiba laptops. My mom has a Dell with a 15+ hour battery and it’s over a year old.</p>
<p>Lastly, you should consider the trouble you’re bound to run into with software incompatibility issues since most applications are designed for Windows.</p>
<p>In general, the default commercial operating system is Windows. However, OSX on a Mac is very stable and intuitive. If money is no object I’d suggest an Apple MacBook Pro and run Windows under the Apple BootCamp utility.</p>
<p>The upside is you have both OSs in one box. The downside is the expense.</p>
<p>C++ compilers can run on a variety of platforms: <a href=“http://www2.research.att.com/~bs/compilers.html[/url]”>http://www2.research.att.com/~bs/compilers.html</a></p>
<p>@Dnerd and Parent2Noles Thank you for the comprehensive answes. </p>
<p>@Dnerd: My main concern is viruses and having to troubleshoot ~ every three months. And you can say how Macs get viruses and so on, but, in actuality, I’ve never heard of any of my friends getting a virus on a mac as no one in the right mind would make a virus that only affects a low percentage of the market.<br>
My main goal is to get a computer for more pragmatic purposes (Mainly for school related purposes: typing, creating adobe documents, internet, and to have it consistently work and not deal with troubleshooting or any of the other fun problems that i have to deal with for my pc).<br>
I’m not saying that you can’t have faster startup with a pc or that no pc has a longer battery life, but the Macbook pro has all the battery life I would need (8 hours) and the Macbook pro does startup much faster than the pc I have right now and I only have two startup apps (I try to limit in order to have faster startup time). </p>
<p>@Parent2noles
Thanks for the info I noticed several C++ compilers for Mac OS and since I only have to take one semester of programming I don’t think what compiler I use will make much of a difference (again as of current I know nothing of programming, but I feel for an introductory class it should not really matter what specific compiler I use). I guess i could run bootcamp as well, but I feel like that would take a massive amount of memory and I would rather stick with one OS.</p>
<p>When you buy a computer today buy as much memory as you can. For a MacBook Pro or even a Windows box I’d suggest no less than 4GB RAM and a multicore processor. Buy more RAM if possible - 8GB RAM is possible on a MBPro but costs $$. BootCamp works well on the MBPro for hardware intensive operations. I use it myself, but I do have 6GB RAM. I also use BootCamp on a Mac Pro…works quite well. I run Windows 7 on both.</p>
<p>Or, just buy a Windoze (:))box with at least 4GB RAM and a multicore procesor. Microsoft Office 2007 is excellent; OpenOffice is also nice and free (See: <a href=“http://www.openoffice.org/[/url]”>http://www.openoffice.org/</a> ).</p>
<p>^^I’ve got a MacBook Pro loaner from my school and I like it a lot. But, I am pretty sure it has some kind of gps tracking stuff in it supposedly in case it disappears the school can track it down and I have heard of at least one instance when that actually occurred with a theft. But I’ve heard of wierd stuff occuring like administrators maybe jumping out of nowhere onto users’ computer screens asking what you’re doing or how come you’re not in class and stuff like that. Am I paranoid or could the school be monitoring my every move with the MacBook. The thing has a camera, could they be spying on me. I just read this attached post and it got me a little concerned.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/909608-lawyer-laptops-took-thousands-images.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/909608-lawyer-laptops-took-thousands-images.html</a></p>
<p>Put a piece of tape over the camera. :)</p>
<p>I’m not saying anybody at school is illegally spying with the laptops, but it seems it could be done if someone abused the technology. I know some of my friends and I have joked around about whether doodad or so & so over at the dept. office is maybe spying on us in our rooms with the computers and we laugh about it–but who knows, maybe they could if they wanted to. The tape over the camera is not out of the question–because we have thought about it. I’m kinda afraid to even pick my nose now in private in fear somebody might be watching. Weird!</p>
<p>Just format the drive and re-install the OS.</p>
<p>^Another good solution.</p>
<p>Can you see me now?</p>
<p>No. Someone put tape over the camera. ;)</p>
<p>I took the Wal-Mart “Happy Face” sticker that was covering the “check engine” light that was on in my car, and put the sticker over the camera on my laptop. I feel better in my room now, but now I don’t feel so good driving my car.</p>
<p>Actually, on the parent cafe thread about the pics taken from laptops by that school board in PA, it was said that that could never happen on a MAC :).</p>
<p>^ Well I don’t know why someone would say something like that. They have the same software for Macs lol</p>
<p>Better get your car serviced or join AAA. Oh yeah, no OS is invulnerable.</p>
<p>The Philidelphia Inquirer says that the computers used to spy on the kids were Apply Macbooks.</p>
<p>Get a mac and run bootcamp. I’m doing it right now</p>
<p>Though I only run windows because my job requires me to have excel 2003 (company still hasn’t upgraded). Plus our HR website only works with internet explorer (and you can’t spoof it)</p>
<p>I would suggest getting a Mac, just for reliability and longevity. I own a late 2007 Macbook Pro with a three year warranty. So far, the only problems I’ve encountered with it was a damaged screen within the first year.</p>
<p>The probability of a Windows based laptop of getting a virus is fairly greater compared to a mac. Often times, viruses will result in the user reinstalling the OS or trying to fix spamming viruses that makes the computer useless. </p>
<p>With a mac, you are able to install multiple partitions, one for Mac and one for Windows. If your windows partition is infested with viruses, you can erase and reinstall that partition, or if you simply do not have time, you still are able to the Apple OS partition until you have time to fix that error. In the end you wont be empty handed with a crippled laptop.</p>
<p>^ You can install multiple partitions on any computer… regardless of its hardware components. </p>
<p>Also, the virus issue is largely overexaggerated. If you stay off of porn sites, stay off of torrents (they won’t be of much use at FSU anyway), and don’t open those “OMG YOU JUST WON $92349235235 dollars!” emails then you’ll be fine with whatever standard virus protection you have.</p>