<p>Our son will be starting college Fall 2009 and really wants a MacBook. We have two Dell PCs in the house, one a desktop used for business and one a personal laptop. Our son uses the laptop and it’s nearing the end of its life despite upgrades and improvements. We thought Christmas might be a good time to purchase his college (Fall 2009) laptop and go for a MacBook, giving him time to get used to it before he leaves and a very nice surprise for his Christmas gift.</p>
<p>However, we’ve never owned a Mac before. After doing some research, we’ve noticed a fair amount of comments on the Internet from Macbook users complaining of problems. Some have said to wait for purchase until after the MacWorld Expo January 2009 when new models may be announced. </p>
<p>The MacBook seemed like the ideal present and we had counted on buying it tomorrow, but now we’re in a quandry. </p>
<p>Is the current release of the regular MacBook (not Pro) a good one or does it have problems? </p>
<p>Do most universities support Mac as well as PCs? </p>
<p>This MacBook would be the same laptop he’d use at college next fall, so we want to purchase wisely. Thanks.</p>
<p>New Macbook models just came out in October, so I wouldn’t expect another round of new models for awhile. My daughter got one of these and she is very happy with it - no problems that I know. She brought it home from college for the break because she doesn’t like to be parted from it :-). </p>
<p>It would make a very nice present if you want to do that, but I also think it’s fine to wait until summer. It doesn’t take much time to get used to, so you don’t need all these months for preparation. However, it would give you time to make your son develop a routine for doing back-ups.</p>
<p>If you buy it, I suggest getting the AppleCare protection plan.</p>
<p>With computers you generally ‘get more for less’ the longer you wait so you might want to wait until just before he heads to college anyway. You might also want to see what the prices are for the Mac at his college since they often discount them. </p>
<p>I think most colleges support Macs as well as PCs. I doubt it’ll take him long to get used to it - probably no more than a week or so.</p>
<p>Of course, waiting leaves you with the quandary of what to get him for Christmas.</p>
<p>I would wait. The price of elctronics are constantly decreasing. If you buy it now, you WILL be smacking yourself in the forehead in a few months. That’s what happened to me when I bought my iPods. I bought my mini, and 2 weeks later the nano came out. I bought a 60 GB video, then a month and a half later, the 80 GB version came out and was 50 dollars cheaper.</p>
<p>I would also look at what the colleges prefer, what would be best for his major. Personally I’m probably going to be getting an Alienware laptop because I’m going to be needing a lot of memory.</p>
<p>Apple makes great products, don’t be afraid of what people say online in forums (those guys are the uber mac nerds that like to dissect every little piece of the computers).</p>
<p>basically I would wait to make a purchase. lol</p>
<p>wait - he won’t need a lot of time to get used to it-
the new books are nice- I want an air though
plus new OS will be coming out shortly- Snow Leopard.
get him a new ipod- or something-instead-( although college students get one free with computer purchase)
but wait until you need it & I would insist on a protection plan for portable electronics always.</p>
<p>The problems talked about on the MacBook are generally due to the graphics chips from nVidia which is an industry-wide problem. Apple has said that they are getting new chips from nVidia in January.</p>
<p>I am using my husband’s Mac Air right now. It is very nice. We’ve had not problem with it and it’s great for traveling. A lot more college students are using Mac now because of itune. My daughter’s Dell is about to crash, so we are also considering a Mac for her, but probably not Air.</p>
<p>There were some problems with a previous edition of the MacBook (the one I’m using right now actually). However, although Apple did it’s best to keep it all hush hush they did fix my computer very quickly for free and I’d still certainly recommend them.</p>
<p>Any university should support Macs just as much as PCs. Within universities, Macs tend to be very popular within some science departments (as they’re essentially UNIX machines) anywhere where powerful graphics machines or video editing are needed. </p>
<p>As for getting it now vs later it probably doesn’t really matter much. In 6 months time there will likely be some newer version with slightly better specs (although probably not a whole new model), but such a small increase in specs isn’t going to really make the computer any better for normal use. </p>
<p>If you don’t want to get it for the holidays you can always save it for a graduation gift…</p>
<p>EDIT: Oh, and don’t forget about Apple’s huge student discounts on computers…</p>
<p>another good reason to wait is that your warranty starts on the day of purchase… You also might get a discount through the U your son will be attending if you wait till fall.</p>
We bought S’s Macbook in April of his senior year in HS. He got the student discount by showing a copy of his admission letter from his university to the guy at the Apple store. It’s definitely worth waiting to get that discount, as well as the free iPod! </p>
<p>This was his first Mac (we’re a PC family!) so he ws able to use the summer to get used to the operating system and learn all the differences.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters that you’ll get a better deal if you wait. When we got our daughter a macbook in the Spring we got the free ipod as well as the student discount. I would start looking at cameras for Christmas!</p>
<p>oldfort- I am no expert. We have HP’s at home. Soph college son has a Macbook. He does not have the Pro. So far he has been very happy with his machine. It seems to stand up to alot of abuse.</p>
<p>We bought D’s as a graduation gift, but didn’t buy until early August. This allowed her to get her student discount, free Ipod Touch, $100 off a printer, and we bought it on our state’s tax-free holiday and saved the tax. There was a two hour wait at our local Apple store, so we bought it online. You still save the tax that way if you have a tax-free holiday.</p>
<p>I’ve been fine with my normal Macbook, Oldfort. Many of my friends have Macbooks (not the pros) and are happy with them. Some people bought extra memory, but that’s about it. </p>
<p>CB, I would also wait until summer. As everyone else has said, it doesn’t take long to adjust to using a Mac, prices may fall, you’ll be able to take advantage of deals geared toward college students, etc.</p>
<p>We’ve delayed the buying decision of D’s laptop until near graduation, ie the longer you wait the cheaper it gets for electronics stuff. We got Macbook Pro for my daughter. She did get to play with it the whole summer. D also said the best advice from Mom is to buy insurance for the laptop which Mom got from CC.</p>
<p>You don’t need the MacBook Pro for college. The regular MacBook should be fine. I would recommend a 250 HD–especially if he ends up needing to install Windows later on for a class. Son just had to do that. He installed Windows Vista Premium with Bootcamp because one of his Spring 2009 classes requires Windows. It was very easy to do.</p>
<p>The differences usually come out to be on configuration. In the previous generation, the differences were bigger but the new generation has user-replaceable disks taking out one of the factors in the choice. I wanted a 17 inch notebook and the kids wanted more power than the old MacBooks had so we picked up 3 MacBook Pros, 2 15 inch, 1 17 inch. If I had it to do now, the MacBook would get more consideration.</p>