Mac OS X Leopard good for students...

I've heard many good things about this operating system and how it's superior to Windows XP and vista. I'm a student and I plan to get a Macbook pro before the next semester. The only thing that bothers me slightly about the operating system is that I've heard it's geared more towards photo editing, video editing, and more entertaining things...I'm sure there are word programs and things that come with the OS but does it have the components necessary for a student. Is Windows a better system as far as school work is concerned...?

 

I wouldn't say so. There's Microsoft Office for Mac, so if you need Office, you can get that, as well as NeoOffice (OpenOffice's Mac equivalent, free as well).

 

Oh, don't forget iWork. It's Apple's own word processing program which is a whole lot cheaper than Microsoft Office. I prefer iWork over Word, but if you want the maximum compatibility with .doc files you should get Word.

 

OS X is excellent for programming as well. Xcode installs not just a free and useful IDE for most programming languages, but also a majority of the most commonly used compilers (gcc, javac, etc.) so that you do not have to hunt for each of them individually. OS X also comes with the X Window System, and Leopard is UNIX 03 compliant.

The only issues would be the fact that you cannot install the .NET framework on OS X, or some specific Windows ONLY IDEs.

 

Software Engineer/ Master Computer Science here: I use my MBP and I'm very, very happy with it! I just removed from the Dock all the iMovie/Garageband/etc stuff =P

Btw, I really, really dislike XCode (yes, it is installed on my machine); the whole way of showing the files is... weird. But fear not! As Eclipse has a Mac OS version which runs very nicely.

The only gripe I have is that I'm, for now, limited to Java 1.5 (does Leopard finally bring 1.6?); for those cases I have a Win XP virtual machine
Other times I need to run Linux specific apps that complain about Mac OS; for those cases I have an Ubuntu virtual machine.

Graphic users-only operating systems? Definitely not for me! The most advanced graphic thingie I can do is... Grab.

Btw, NeoOffice is free and very, very good. None of my Mac friends is buying Office for Mac or other proprietary suites.

Hope it helps

 

I know that the Apple operating system has iWork but I've looked on these forums and a lot of people claim that Office 2008 is better than iWork...so I guess what I'm trying to say is if I'm a student and I'm going to get an apple for school but I'm going to end up using microsoft office is the rest of the operating system enough to purchase a MBP...I hope that makes sense...?

 

in my opinion...
1. there will be some getting used to
2. i don't think one is better than the other, you will find that their capability is quite similar after #1
3. main reasons for buying a mbp: a. looks sleek b. curious and ambitious c. even if you dislike mac software, you can fall back to windows with bootcamp

i hope that makes sense

 

Basically my point is that if you're going to constantly share office documents with other people you should go for Office 2008. If you save a .doc file in iWork it tends to rarely but sometimes lose formatting. With Office 2008 you're guaranteed 100% compatibility with Windows users that have Office.

I don't know why you as a college student would need a MBP unless you're using a software that requires heavy 3D processing and professional HD video editing or unless you're extremely rich. That thing costs like two grands!

For most people Macbook is more than enough for them except for the integrated graphics. Also don't expect to be able to play a lot of games on the Mac whether it be MB or MBP. If you've been to an electronics store you would see that there's only about half a shelf for Mac games and aisles and aisles of games for Windows.

 

That is because Office for Mac is better than iWork. Office for Mac is much more powerful than iWork, and has been around for a long time.

But you have to consider the prices as well as how much of Office's features will you actually use. Microsoft Office for Mac Student Edition is about $150...iWork is $79. So for those who want more than OpenOffice (NeoOffice for Mac) can provide, but don't want or need Microsoft Office, iWork is a good in-between.