Questions about Boot Camp, Student Discount, and Macbook Screen!

Hello all, I am getting a laptop for a friend, and she's open to Macs though is a little apprehensive but finds them very cute and portable and all the like. We are deciding between a Macbook or a Lenovo Thinkpad T61t.

--About Boot Camp: Is it free? I think she has an XP disc from when she got her old Dell laptop, but she'll have to check. I know you need the XP disc, but otherwise, is it free to download? What about Parallels (and is it better?)?

--She is a graduate student, or about to be, so how do we access the student discount page? And how much is it? I saw the post about the Development Students, but it said that saved more money for the Pro rather than the regular one (which is what we can afford). She'll still get the free Nano, too, right?

--Also, is the Macbook available with a matte or glossy screen? Because she really prefers the matte. This may be a deciding factor, actually. If it is glossy, is it as shiny as say, HP's glossy screens? I haven't seen a Macbook in a few weeks, and I wasn't looking out for the gloss, so I don't recall.

Thanks for the help. Take care!

 

Sorry, one more thing!

How much does the regular Macbook weigh?

 

-Bootcamp is free, but its beta the full version will come with OS X 10.5

-on the apple store page on the right side it says education store, click it. and she will get the free nano through the education store

-it is glossy, I hate glossy screens but I actually liked it, its a low-non-glare gloss so its quite nice and I would totally get it if i needed a small laptop.

-I beleive its like 4.2 pounds its quite light

 

Ah, thanks! I read some about the screen...it sounds like it's not terribly shiny like you said. Definitely a plus.

Any idea, anyone, when 10.5 will come out? Is it better to wait until then?

 

Leopard (10.5) will likely be out at the end of the year or very beiginning, just before Vista. If she is not very tech savvy and not tied to Windows, I believe a Mac would be a great fit. It doesn't require as much user intervention to work well. Not to say XP isn't a good OS, I think its great, but it deffinitely requires more from the user than OS X does. If she is going to try to run Windows all the time, get the Thinkpad, they are very nice.

 

That XP Disc that she has (assuming its from the old Dell) will not work, for a few reasons.

1. XP discs from OEMs are generally made to only run when it detects the matching hardware it was shipped with.
2. XP discs also have activation, meaning when she activated that for her older computer, that XP copy is registered to that computer. A new license must be purchased for the new one.

I highly feel that your friend will enjoy OS X anyways.

 

Bootcamp final on Leopard? Why are you so shure?

 

It weighs ~5.2lbs not 4.2 as listed above. It is actually heavier than you might expect. Believe this is without the power plug. http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html

 

Thanks for all the help, but it looks like she's more sure on the Thinkpad than she was last night.

Women and their mood swings...=)

 

Aww, doesn't know what shes missing out.

jtdcg, it's not that heavy at all, if you never workout or something than, I guess it would be heavy.

There are many features on the Macbook and MBP for this matter, that Apple doesn't cover on their site, limited space I guess. OS X can pretty much do everything windows can, with the exception of gaming.

imo, Macs make using the computer fun again.

 

it is not by any stretch heavy, and is a great laptop, but it is almost a pound heavier than 2 other notebooks in its class, the sony sz and asus w7j.

 

You'll notice it's sturdy as heck as well.

I have never seen a LCD screen built so solid before. Weight means everything to some people, but is 5 pounds really that heavy for some?

To me, Quality always comes first no matter what.

 

Only meaning to point out the error. It is a factor that matters for many people and should easily be a quantitative spec that the buyer can look at and compare to other machines.

Your selection matrix might put weight lower than someone elses but rather than evaluating on an opinion (eg "its light"..."its not that heavy"...etc) use the facts.

Thanks incendes, your point is why I pointed out the error.