PC or Mac

They both work equally well.

If your school network is prone to viruses, however, the Mac will have an advantage.

..well, at least the both working equally well part.

Here is the deal that you have to consider, i am assuming you are talking about the MB not MBP here... in which case the hardware cost will be about equal. However, since you already have a set of software for windows, why would you want to spend more money on software for a mac that does the same thing. Really seems like just a waste. If you are going to install Windows on MB then there is even less logic behind that because you already paid for macos, only not to use it. Another important factor to consider is that some campuses are not friendly towards certain OSes, be sure that your school officially supports macs or you might run into trouble. Also depending on your major you might need to run special software that might be for one os or another. Granted through emulator or dual-booting you can (Lmost likely) still run stuff well, but again you run into a software redundancy issue.

The whole no virus, spyware, whatever arguement is really BS. Its not so much the PC vs MAC platform (hell..they are both x86-64 anyway), but more of an OS arguement. Yes UNIX based oses are less prone to that crap b/c of market share, that is, if you are a hacker you have more interest in infecting 90% of hte market, not 5%. Then again you can install a Unix-based OS on a dell just the same as you can install osx on a mac. Furthermore with just a simple free AV tool (avast, avg, clamwin), and Spybot S&D... avoid visiting pr0n and hacker sites and you should be reasonably "safe" from all that junk.

???
Alienware is a manufacturer of PCs, basically high-end gaming-centric PCs.

Did you mean "How does Alienware match up with generic PCs as far as school goes"?

galahad, the guy is obviously a newb so give his question some credit for what its worth. that said, yeah, i am pretty sure he means how does an AW stack to a Dell or HP as far as school goes. And of course the answer is there is no point in getting a pimped out AW if all you are doing is school stuff. A $700 Acer would work just the same (not recommending Acers here, they seem to be of rather dodgey build quality and support). That said I highly encourage the OP to go to newegg and check out their ASUS section.

you may want to keep in mind that Apple has student discounts that applies to computers some software and accessories it can save you a few hundred dollars. I work (Mac's version of power point and word) cost $50 with student discount and is multi licensable check the price of the student version of microsoft's. and about running windows boot camp is free some VM's are still free and others cost from 40- 80 dollars and if you already have a paid license of xp you can usually transfer it to a new computer if it is a retail version. that is what I did with mine it cost me very little to run both windows and OSX on my Mac Book Pro.

Talk about being useful, any decent computers with any OS can be equally useful.

For school, decent laptops that is product of 2007 will serve fine. And for professional engineering sort will required high-end grade laptop.

But for new computer users, i recommend learn to use Linux. Is free and very powerful for power users, other than OSX's creative usage and Windows gaming/hybrid usage. I'm fine with OSX even i haven't use it. But I really like to be a master of Linux, is much complicated than Windows and takes times. :S

linux is not more complicated than windows, or at least i find it that way. the freedom and endless flexiblity... on top of amazing scrips/progs like APT or Portage make setting up your perfect config easier than any other OS... no need to go to manufacturer websites for drivers, or software download sites for programs...its all there in 1 easy place.

Perhaps is just that i never get a chance to fully take control of my Linux since i launch it by CD boot to RAM. Can't install to HDD because lack of partition space to share.

The longest hours i run an old Linux Boot CD is about 4 hours doing stuffs and stuffs until it freezed.

Ah, in general I wouldn't call linux any more difficult once you understand syntax. However, when updates cause you to modify the source of old programs just to get them to run....well you get the point. This is not to say this is a common issue for me. Most of my programs are just peachy on newer versions, however some, such as nvclock cause my problems which I have to correct.

Cyclewhitney,

In general, the PC/Mac thing always degenerates into a flame war...but.. truthfully, both can get the job done. There. No flaming needed

Both platforms can work for you, but I find the biggest difference to be in the maintenance and upkeep of each respective system.

I find OSX to be much more "idiot-proof," a computer your technology illiterate grandmother could use, as well as still being a powerful platform.. You do pay extra for a little bit of "peace of mind" though. I like tinkering with things too, but in the end, you just want things to work.

However, be advised that if you are running Windows, you are going to need to go the extra mile to ensure you remain virus-free and be willing to manually configure certain drivers, etc. Virus-free/spyware-free is possible in Windows, though.

Additionally, if you want to retain "like-new" performance, there are a number of things that you must keep up with: i.e. disk defragmenting, occasional reformats. You will essentially never have to do anything like this with OSX. It will still be fine 4 years down the road, barring hardware failure.

So to wrap things up, if you get Windows, make doubly sure that you spend the extra time and effort and patience to keep it in top shape. I don't want any phone calls at 4 AM that go like "...um... I have a report due in 4 hours, but my computer keeps giving me the hourglass and freezing" :P


P.S. One last thing. The Macbook is much lighter and more portable than the home user class of Dell notebooks. College students travel, so it's a plus

Macs are definitely nice--no muss, no fuss.

I still like PC laptops though. Just personal preference (I might pick up a Mac laptop in the near future though).

:

sigh, no that isnt true anymore, Apple uses x86 extention in order to use the intel platform, thats the only reason apple had the upper hand

that is no more

id go with PC myself, since apples are over priced and just trendy, go with Asus, hell they make the barebones for apple anyway

edit: my bad abf didnt see yer post before i posted :P not trying to copy!!!


soulsaver

Uh...x86 does not equal viruses.

i think the point is that since macs are x86 now they have absolutely no real hardware differences (as opposed to the ppc days when apple claimed ppc was the next best thing since sliced bread... and when intel macs came out they reversed their statement right away saying intel cpus are 5x faster than the motorola chips). that said buying a pc does not mean getting viruses. getting windows and being stupid about usage is. but just as well you can install a *nix and it saves you the virus and spyware issues

Apple switched and said Intel was faster because the new chips are faster. The G5s were pretty equal in performance with most competing processors before Intel dropped the new Core chips on the playing field. The G4s, unfortunately, had been lagging behind for several years.

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/...ogues-posts-4/

not many go into the detail of x86, but x86 is a intel/amd platform, PPC didnt have it so in theroy couldnt exe a virus writen with the windows/ibm type platform

but i agree with the article, apple has the advantage, however vista is getting there

and honestly, mac or pc, it doesnt matter, get what suits your needs, not what gives you less virus/trojans/malware/spyware thats why programs are made to get rid of it


soulsaver

A virus written for Windows will not run on Mac OS X regardless of whether or not it's running on PPC or X86.

If that was the case then Linux would've had lots of viruses all these years that it's been running on X86.