<p>@rymd: I’m not an engineer, but I had a MacBook for the four years I was at Rice. For me, it was very much a worthwhile investment. Because of AppleCare, I did not pay a single cent for repairs while I was at Rice, and thanks to the Apple Store if something did go wrong my computer was never out of commission for more than three or four days. My friend’s Dell hard drive crashed, and he had to ship it off for like two weeks. Two weeks in academic time is huge.</p>
<p>I know that anecdotal evidence alone is not good enough to counter your argument (or quip — whatever you consider it), but I’m saying that sometimes it’s worth spending a bit of a premium.</p>
<p>Also, no matter whether you’re going Mac, PC, or Linux, if you’re going to spend a lot of money on one thing for college (besides tuition and room & board), make it your computer. You’ll need it to hold up to daily use (I have no idea how much uptime I logged on mine, but if I was awake and not in class there was a good chance that my laptop was open), and you’ll need it to last you four years.</p>