Should I buy a Mac or a PC?

[Steve W]

I am a Mac user first. I own a Mac Pro which is not a laptop. I run Vista and OS X on the computer. Call of Duty 4 was recommended as a great 1st party shooter game so I got Vista and use bootcamp when I want to play.

My daughter has a Macbook and just loves it. We have had a few small issues that were easily solved. I would however recommend getting the extended warranty if purchasing a Mac. Get the one from Apple not Futureshop etc. My daughter is not very respectful of laptops so it has gone through a lot. We had one power supply go ($120.00) and a problem with her internal wireless part ( $200.00) and they replaced her keyboard (they noticed the chipped pieces) all under warranty at no cost. When purchasing as a student you get cheaper rates on the warranty.

I use an IBM laptop for work and only have complaints about the speed because of all the Business stuff that the company puts on to keep security at a max. The PC I have at home costs me for spyware and virus protection that if not kept up is a disaster. I am pretty good at working PC's and do most of the troubleshooting in the office and most of the problems are are caused by internet access or adding "questionable" programs.

Most important is what a lot of others have been saying. What programs do you need at school. Both a Mac and Windows based machine will allow access to the network and internet so you need to explore the niche programs that you will be using.

Good luck and remember, I am a Mac user (since the Apple 2).