Should I buy a Mac or a PC?

[Molten]

Something New
How about instead of throwing out individual setups and arguing points that can be found anywhere on the net, why not give some college experience?

For instance, a fourth of my campus is run on mac. At any given time 90% of these are unused. I won't judge why, I'm just making the point that the computers the school has, does not say what computers the school uses.

A second note, some schools give out software for free. If you'd like to see the software available for free(at my school) please go to http://iuware.iu.edu/

Your school may do something similar, and the software they provide might have an impact on your decision.

Lastly, you do not need a computer for the first day of college. I didn't have one my first year, and did not need one. Freshmen courses are generally low tech and pretty laid back so you have time to use a computer lab for the few instances it is needed. If you haven't decided for sure, wait. This advice may be bad, if you go to a school such as Rose Hulman where all the students are expected to have a laptop. I am just stating from mine.

If there are any other college students out there, please continue my line of thought with your experiences(both agree and disagree with mine). As a previous searcher of advice(can't find my old laptop thread), this type of advice just seems more easy to process.(not to mention a bit less biased)

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Molten

A second note, some schools give out software for free. If you'd like to see the software available for free(at my school) please go to http://iuware.iu.edu/

Lastly, you do not need a computer for the first day of college. I didn't have one my first year, and did not need one. Freshmen courses are generally low tech and pretty laid back so you have time to use a computer lab for the few instances it is needed. If you haven't decided for sure, wait. This advice may be bad, if you go to a school such as Rose Hulman where all the students are expected to have a laptop. I am just stating from mine.

If there are any other college students out there, please continue my line of thought with your experiences(both agree and disagree with mine). As a previous searcher of advice(can't find my old laptop thread), this type of advice just seems more easy to process.(not to mention a bit less biased)

OK! I'm in colllege too! My comments still stand, but to add on what you said....

My college has a free software site with XP, Vista, Vista 64bit, and OSX software, for free, for download. Including OS's, Word, AutoCad, etc. http://software.udayton.edu (pw protected, just want to link it)

I can upgrade my MacBook Pro easier than any PC laptop. RAM, HD, battery (yes I have the new one) can be replaced. The idea Macs are hard to service are from the late 90's early 2000's. The origional 96 iMac you had to remove the logic board to replace both sticks of RAM.

You need a laptop freshman year, and I started freshman year 4 years ago this fall. I wrote, and turned in papers, online, did research, and did model building and created and presented presentations. Yes, you can do this in a lab, but neary ALL of our labs have been removed and replaced with laptop stations (monitors w/ keyboards and mice with an ethernet hook up) or turned into more classrooms.

Finally, Macs are just as good of a value, if not more so than a PC. Notice how I didn't say cheap? They don't participate in the thick, plastic-y, low end laptops. And when you upgrade the higher end Dell, HP, or Lenovo machines to match the Mac's specs and battery life you match or exceed the price of the Mac.

Plus, if you buy a new Mac with eduational discount (between $50-$200 depending on the machine) you get a free iPod touch with the purchase. Which adds another $229 to the value of the machine. So when I got my 13" MBP I got $329 in rebates.

Oh, and to shut up anyone who will bring up the SATA 1.5Gb transfer...

http://support.apple.com/downloads/M...re_Update_1_7_

BOOM. Roasted.