<p>S. mom, yes, I would think so. Why don’t you go ahead and call though before u make the investment.</p>
<p>You should ask that specific question up front studious mom because it could make a huge difference at some critical time in the future.</p>
<p>My d’s school promotes both MACs and certain Dells and because she now has a problem, as have very many students, with the particular Dell, its in the shop being looked at. Glad it is supported, hope but don’t know if its fixable. My concern is that being without it for maybe several weeks, even IF it is fixable, is at best inconvenient, but more than likely costly in terms of valuable time and $. Seems as if the Dells are breaking rather predicatably and the MACs are not. I wondered if that this model of Dell specifially, or a Dell brand problem in particular or a pc problem in general. I was expecting more than 1 1/2 years out of the Dell.</p>
<p>Or, maybe I should only expect 1 1/2 years out of any well-used laptop.</p>
<p>Thisyearsgirl, I am happily waiting for the day that my either of my Sonys starts to malfunction so I can have the first excuse to buy my new Mac. D will not let me play with hers. I looked at several over the holidays and basically just stood there in the store and drooled.</p>
<p>one big difference is Gaming…for some guys and gals, a PC is necessary.</p>
<p>fwiw: I am now on year 5 of my Dell laptop, which I used for work and have traveled extensively with it. But, consider purchasing the service contract if you can obtain immediate service…places like Costco sell Dells with 3 year warranties.</p>
<p>latetoschool: Well, there’s an interesting maneuver that involves an open Coke can and a sudden, uncontrollable muscle spasm… :D</p>
<p>Or try a margarita - they are nice and tippy. I did that once to my keyboard and had to buy a new one. Yikes.</p>
<p>I worked on a pc for years. Then a year and a half ago, my son and I converted to a mac house. I’d NEVER go back. It’s a revelation how intuitive everything is! My poor husband still has to have his pc laptop even though he’s now retired and working his new part-time job from home on a new machine because it’s what he was used to at work, but I would never have a pc again. I just can’t mess anything up on my mac! Even when I do, it’s too easy to back up and fix it. I don’t even need my son anymore even though we’re connected by remote control so he can fix my machine from college. I love my mac!</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear someone else is waiting for a major malfunction so that you can justify a new mac. Unfortunately, I’m waiting and waiting…I’m still on my G3 and it just won’t quit on me…</p>
<p>We have always been a PC house…but when my D’s laptop was stolen, she bought a Mac, because it was prettier! I warned her not to ask for help from me, I cannot be intuitive over the phone, and she has had some strugles with it.</p>
<p>She still really likes it, but I would totally recommend the extended warranty…D is not pushy enough and the guy at the Apple store told her she could not add the Apple care when hers was 6 mos old- this was not true, but she never told me…until the hard drive failed after 13 mos, a week or two before finals, gone a week for repairs by the school at our expense, then crashed again, then crashed again…as they replaced other parts. No coke or spills, just bad luck. We finally bought the new OS & it seems okay. The odd thing is that 2 ipods and her laptop all had their harddrives replaced in the same month, not giving me great confidence about the quality of Apple HDs.</p>
<p>That being said, having a desktop which needs to be reformatted to get rid of annoying adware makes me think twice about Macs…there is sooo much junk out there waiting to attack your PC.</p>
<p>I would consider your usage, the programs you need and your ability to tinker with it!</p>
<p>Also, D is taking a class at school, a GE req which teaches a lot about using your computer and the internet- would have been great to take it first year, and they are not helpful at all in teaching her the Apple version, she basically does the assignment twice, once on a school lab PC to turn in and once on her Mac to learn how to do it there. You might check with the school about that compatibility in his dept.</p>
<p>Macs by far. Moose, what can’t you do on a Mac that you can do on a PC?</p>
<p>Play the latest games!</p>
<p>isnt that what atari is for? ;)</p>
<p>Macs are definitely well-made, but PCs have them beat when it comes to price. My (well-equipped) dell laptop was $900…meanwhile, an equivelent apple would have been close to $2000.</p>
<p>Well, our household is totally PC. My kids have had experience with PCs & Macs at their schools & even helped in the tech lab which has both types of computers. Hubby works on computers for a living & loves PCs. None of us can figure out Macs very well & when his sister bought a Mac, she wanted us to help her because the extended coverage she purchased from the Mac store couldn’t help her transfer her addresses from her old Mac to her new one. We were finally able to help her, but it was painful & slow to do. We were really disappointed with their customer support.
We have had PCs forever (in our household) & our extended family is switching from Macs to PCs now.
We will wait to find out which college son is heading for & what computer system they want him to have before we help him get the appropriate computer. If he goes to a Mac campus, he MAY think about a Mac, but he’s really happier with PCs.</p>
<p>the campus will certainly be important when you decide what sort of platform to use.
Ask the computer shop what they recommend
although because of the ongoing worm virus spyware issues, some depts are switching to macs boosted by the sexiness of the ipods 
love macs</p>
<p>Our kids have used Macs through school and service projects, but they don’t care for them at all and we won’t ever be buying one. We’re all techie geeks and we’re PC all the way. Most of the techie geeks in this area who use Macs … work for Apple. (Funny thing about that…) But hey, whatever floats your boat! As long as no one makes me use one, I’m fine with others using whatever they want! Much of the worry about viruses goes away if you use a modern browser like Firefox (rather than IE) and don’t open attachments in email (and better yet, don’t use Outlook as an email program if you have a choice).</p>
<p>I hang out with a lot of writers outside of work, and many of them use Macs. They do seem to have more problems with them than any of us have ever had with our PCs… except when, say, someone steps on the kid’s laptop and breaks the screen. But we’ve been very happy with our extended warranties and customer service – Kid #2, who could break anything you put in front of him without trying, is on his 3rd year with this laptop and I expect it to last one more before we get him a new one on his way to college… which will be a PC, for certain.</p>
<p>At the college tour we took today, the kids were explicitly told, “If you’re in the Architecture school, you’ll want a Mac, otherwise you’ll want a PC.” But that came from a computer engineering major, so take it with some amount of salt.</p>
<p>Intuitive == Mac? You’ve all been good slaves to marketing. bullshi ite. Most Mac people just drop off their machines to a Mac shop somewhere to fix the problem without “intuiting” what the problem is because there aren’t a million different variations to the problem that plagues the PC realm, due to the 1000x more vendors. Which is good thing, but don’t give me this “intuitive” crap that Apple throws at you and you so readily swallow.</p>
<p>…why, because none of us have actually used Macs and from experience found them to be more streamlined than the PCs we used to own? “Slaves to marketing” – that’s a good one.</p>
<p>To further my response, most Mac people couldn’t/wouldn’t fix their Macs if the solutions smacked em over their heads. Once again, don’t give me this intuitive crap. I own a business fixing PCs and Macs and they always have the same typical “I screwed up my PC/Mac” but I don’t know why problems. Intuitive my you know what…</p>
<p>After Affirmative Action, nothing seems to stir the blood like a PC vs. Mac thread. Lets try to frame this discussion away from my computer is better than yours.</p>
<p>Too often, the question starts like this: I want an Apple or Windows computer. What do you think? Let me suggest a far better line of inquiry: What do I need to accomplish (as in my school work)? Yes, this is a buttocks-backward approach to the problem and, hopefully, will yield more light than heat. And lets agree that any current computer/laptop will do the basics: Web-surfing; e-mail; word processing and burning CDs. </p>
<p>Consider the following:</p>
<p>What is your major?
Does your major require any special software?
On what platforms will this software run?
If youre in a professional program, what is your industry standard platform?</p>
<p>For most students, either an Apple or Window based computer will do. However, if youre in a specialized field, then the software should dictate which platform you should buy. It makes no sense to buy a platform that cannot support a specialized piece of software in its native format. </p>
<p>Further muddying your decision is Apples move to an Intel based platform. Many hoped for the possibility of having a dual boot machine that could run Windows in its native format rather than running Virtual PC. Mac news sites suggest that Windows will not be officially supported on its new Intel machines. If this feature matters to you, do your due diligence before you buy </p>