University and a Mac Virgin, good idea?

I'll try and keep this brief. I have been using Windows and Pcs all my life ever since i was a little toddler. In fact, i used to dislike macs for not being like my PC! Anyway, those days are gone and I am very eager to hop on the mac. That being said, I will be attending university this coming fall and will need a laptop, I want to pick up a macbook pro.

My question is, is it a wise thing to do? I have no experience whatsoever with any type of mac yet I want to make the change. I will have time to play with it before I will need it for studies of course, but the bottom line is that I do not want to be stuck with a computer, while although productive, which I am not able to fully use. As far as windows and PCs go I consider myself knowledgeable but not all of that will transfer to the apple experience.

Any input is welcome, thanks

 

I think its going to be pretty easy to switch over to Mac OS X. Its not as hard as it may seem...its a nice smooth transition for most.

Sounds good to me . I suggest you read Switch 101 to get a head start on what its like to use a Mac.

 

Welcome to the biased part of the neighborhood! By that were all mac fanatics.

But if your wondering why were mac fanatics well 3 words for you to know "IT JUST WORKS"

 

What will you be studying? If it is a computer science related course, then chances are you will be working with a *nix environment quite often (UNIX, LINUX, BSD etc.). That most likely would mean the need to dual boot a Microsoft OS and a *NIX OS. From my personaly experience I can tell you that altough Mac OS X is more user friendly than Microsoft Windows, it totally kicks the crap out of any distribution of Linux in terms of ease of use.
Therefore, instead of dual booting Windows/Linux, I would strongly recommend you get a Mac and dual boot OS X/Windows instead.

If your course has no dependence on the OS you use at all (not a media or computing related course), then it would totally depend on your personal tastes. Of course, in the worst case, you could just boot Windows in exchange for some battery life and performance.

 

I will be studying business, will be doing a bachelors of commerce. When you say sacrifice battery life and performance, how much are we talking about?

P.S. All your comments are helpful guys haha, they so far have only made me want a mbp even more

 

Battery life in my MBP running Windows is about 2.5 hrs, under medium use (internet browsing, 4/5ths brightness, some video watching). Definitely lower than in Mac OS, but still plenty.

I think the transition would be pretty smooth for you - I'm sure you'll need to be doing some Excel spreadsheeting, and that of course works just fine with a Mac. I used a Mac for my Statistics and Accounting courses, when I needed to. So, if you do want to give a Mac a shot, I don't think you need to be too worried about any growing pains. But, like Durious said, we're biased :-D

 

if you have enough money, then go for a macbook pro. I am currently using a macbook pro and I am happy with it.
If you run on a budget, then a macbook is fine, Business administration does not need a lot of video work, they just need excel.

 

Btw, if you do want to get a MBP (or any computer actually), I would advise waiting as long as you can until you get it. It's generally good to wait when it comes to computers, but it's especially pertinent this time around, as the new Montevina platform will be released this summer, which will be a fairly significant leap in performance, etc. It's anyone's guess if the MBP will be updated in time for school, but certainly some computers will have by then.

 

Absolutely. You'll get a sweet laptop without looking like a hopeless nerd. It'll help you pick up chicks if you're smart about it.

If you have had a brain you can figure out how to use Macs. They're not designed to be hard to use, they're just different. Good luck

 

For university life I cannot think of a better laptop to use. Especially in business because like others have mentioned, business is not graphics intensive and OSX or windows will both get the job done.

But for personal use OSX is definitely more convenient. I like XP also, and it is in every way just as good, but I prefer to use OSX. I'm in medical science, and all I do is read scientific articles, write lab reports, spreadsheets, and all the other computer related stuff like email msn..etc etc.

If you end up not liking your macbook pro for school I will buy it off you.

 

I wouldn't consider myself an "Apple fanatic" so be weary of my post if you are.

The hardware is very well designed and convenient however there are some things OS X struggles with. I still use Windows on a very regular basis. Each OS does certain things better and I can't use just one for everything that I do.

That being said however Macs (Macbook Pros) which are what I'm a bit more familiar with run the transition flawlessly. I can confidently say that Windows Vista Ultimate (x86) is totally smooth under Bootcamp. I'd even go so far to say that I think it runs even smoother and is snappier than OS X Leopard.

To boil my post down a bit; Yes I would recommend a Mac for college it has proven invaluable for me during my first few semesters and I can see this will be a lasting bond for quite some time.

 

I got my MBP for final year law only about 4 months ago but I really have to say moving from XP/Vista wasn't at all difficult. And as everyone here said theres always bootcamp if you want to run XP. Couple of observations though.

1) Office '07 for the pc is superior to the mac '08 version and doesnt really feel the same so if you are going to be typing alot try and give yourself a little bit of time to get used to it.

2) The keyboard on the MBP isnt that great (personal feeling, don't flame please) so if you haven't had a chance to yet try and get about 30 minutes in a shop or with a friends to stress test it to see if it suits you.

3) On the upside I found the mic on the MBP to be very good for recording my lectures and Office '08 notepad can track your typing to the audio to listen back to your lecturers which is brilliant.

4) The screen really is fantastic and coming from an Asus R1f the visibility of the led screen even in a well lit classroom is lightyears ahead of anything I had before.

OSX really is far and away superior to XP/Vista IMHO. As with others here I still use Vista on another machine but coming from a law perspective where I would do an awful lot of fast switching between documents (10-15 at a time) expose is a godsend.

Some people say OSX its easier (read: simple) but you will find that its as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Once you get used to a couple of keyboard shortcuts you'll feel like a pro.

 

LOL you would buy anything off of anybody eh?

 

disagree about office 2008 (mac) vs 2007 (pc), also disagree about the keyboard.

one thing to keep in mind is that windows is better for gaming (osx can barely sc**** by in that department) so you'll need windows if you want to play, well, pretty much anything on your laptop.

edit: i don't know why it blotted out the word. poor censorship?

 

LOL that is one funny censorship. sc**** lol.

I think that Office 2007 is better to use and does feel more powerful than Office 2008. For example, trying to do mathematical equations in Office 2008 is just like Office 2004/2003, while in Office 2008 it's been much improved.
Although, I don't believe the difference can be felt simply by typing. I only experienced slight inconveniences when trying to do more complicated tasks.

 

And if you're going to university, there's usually a ton of outlets almost everywhere you go. Even Big lecture halls have outlets in every row.

So for me the battery life isn't really a problem, just because theres always an outlet nearby if i need it, or will need it soon.

 

Yeah, unfortunately that's the cause of troublemakers who misused the system. That's censored for r a p e, and when its in the word, its still censored. Even skysc****r is censored.

Which reminds me of one member who's thread title was "Overclocking", but made a typo which censored it to "Over****ing" .

 

I would suggest that, prior to purchasing any notebook for university, that you contact the university and see if there is software that you will need for class(es) that requires particular operating systens. Given that you're going into commerce, there is a decent chance that you'll be required to use software that is entirely designed to work in a Windows environment - I can't recall them off hand (of course ) but in the business labs that I manage we have a series of Windows specific applications that students are required to use. The software is released by textbook manufacturers, and then used by lecturers when they teach in our labs. Students are expected to do assignments using the software and turn homework in that depends on using the software outside of classtime. You can, of course, just run bootcamp and hop into Windows, but if it's likely that you're going to have to do that a lot then I'd recommend getting a Windows-based PC. Alternately you can just use the college labs, but then you'll be subject to booking times and using (typically) gross peripherals.

Don't get me wrong; I love my macbook, and it's great for my studies (I've just completed a MA, and I'm moving on to Doctoral studies). That said, all of my coursework involves writing and research so I'm good on pretty well any platform.

Contact your school, make sure that you aren't going to be dependent on Windows-only software. At the same time, confirm that there is IT support for your mac (I'm not talking 'we fix your computer' but 'we can help you connect to our wireless network if you're having problems). The IT support is especially important - the university I work for doesn't officially support Macs. That doesn't mean that you can't find IT people to help, but it can be a pain in the but to find us, and it's usually word of mouth only. This word-of-mouth system also puts you at the bottom of the priority list of tickets to deal with, which could delay a resolution to whatever problem you're experiencing.

All this said, enjoy your undergraduate! It'll be an incredibly exciting, challenging, and transforming experience!

 

Lol guess I'm the odd one out here.