<p>cdz512, I know you’re trying to be helpful, but I think you greatly exaggerate the difficulties of switching to a Mac. I use both Macs and PCs. There are a few things that are different, but it’s not anything remotely close to a steep learning curve to figure it out (presumably, this is especially the case for an engineering student). It’s much more difficult to switch to a Windows-based version of Word, for example. The interface is 100x more inconsistent than anything I’ve ever seen in a Mac version.</p>
<p>You mention that you “don’t want her to get a mac, but then spend her time trying to understand how to configure something…” Again, this is 100x more likely using a Windows. In fact, spending your time trying to understand how to configure something is the typical user experience for many people using Windows. </p>
<p>There are few problems transferring files between Macs and PCs. The only one I seen recently is that Microsoft Word switched file formats from .doc to .docx. If you have an earlier version of Word for Mac you can download some free MS software that converts .docx documents to .doc. When using Word 2007 on a PC, you can you compatibility mode. Other file formats are generally crossplatform.</p>
<p>As the OP did not want to get into any mac vs. pc issues, I tried to avoid doing so. While well-intentioned, however, cdz512’s post gives a misleading impression about the issues I mentioned above. I question whether he has much experience with Macs, or even computers in general.</p>