Ask Engadget: PC or Mac for back to school?
By Paul Miller 
posted August 23rd 2007 10:51PM
posted August 23rd 2007 10:51PM
It's that time of year again on Ask Engadget, when unfortunate, impressionable youths get kicked out of nurturing homes into the adult-beverage-soaked halls of higher learning institutions. Of course, the question of the hour is what kind of computer should you guilt your parents into purchasing for you, but Dave's making things particularly hard on himself:"I'm a Uni student doing IT Security, and I'm looking to replace my now four year old Windows laptop, and am tossing up between getting another Windows PC or getting a MacBook, and just wanted some advice on how it would suit me. Essentially I do some C/C# programming, Web design, presentations, reports and the like, with assignments needing to be in PPT and DOC formats. Could I get some advice on how each one would fare for my purpose, and iWork and Office compare for University use? Any help would be much appreciated!"
It sounds like Dave's got some pretty specific needs, and our gut feeling is that he won't hear the end of it from his peers if he's running any software that isn't governed by an open source license, but what say you peoples? Oh, and don't forget to send your questions and moral conundrums to ask at engadget dawt com, or next week we're going to be featuring a heartfelt plea from Josh to help him decide his favorite color.
Compared PC and Mac with similar hardware spec, the price difference is minimal. I used PC at work since my boss wanted to save a few bucks (but he forgot the cost of annual anti-virus subscription fee). While at home I use iMac which I feel much more comfortable and relaxing than working on a PC. Go get a MacBook, install Boot Camp/ Parallel + Window later if your school work really required. But sure you will enjoy using the Mac side for your leisure. BTW, whatever laptop you buy, make sure to install at least 2G RAM. Best wish on your future endeavor.
Yeah, I was going to get 2GB of RAM, my current lappy has 1GB of RAM, so I actually want to upgrade.. thanks for the comment!
I love my MacBook for school. Windows has to many problems!
ok idk about c/c# and all that crap, but i just bought my first mac about a year ago, and a second one 6 monthes later only due to the fact that the family was fighting over computer time. before that, we had a compaq presario with windows 98se on it and a 512mb RAM. it was extremely slow and couldnt run hardley and programs on it due to outdatedness, but it still worked fine. my point is, dont say microsoft is more likely to crash, because microsoft will last forever if you treat them right. macs are just easier to treat well, and i dont have a clue about their loggetivity because i havent had it long yet.
I use both bootcamp and parallels both work 100% fine.
Go with the Macbook m8......
"MacBooks suck for running windows"
Microsoft's own staff don't seem to have any problems running Vista on their company Macbook Pro's.
get a mac
Mac vs. PC question + Web site full of geeks = 300+ replies.
Epic win.
You don't need to run windows on the mac, everything you do can be done the mac way because there are lots of programs available for you. I own a mac since 2005 and It's the best thing i've done.
Have you ever rush you way home just to get to your computer to play or work? well that happens when you have a Mac, people that don´t like Macs it´s because then don´t have the cash to buy it. my daughter has a Macbook after having 3 PC laptops and she says it´s the best computer she has owned, it stills runs as fast as when we took it out of the box 6 months ago, they look beautiful, they work, they are silent, programs open in 1 second, they turn on-off in 14 seconds...etc...etc...etc....
im not a "mac fanboy" or anything (hell, i havent had my mac for a year yet.), but mac DOES do everything a pc will do and more. it may be a little less compatible with some programs, but you can just run bootcamp and thats gone...
Get a Macbook Pro and try using Neo Office before buying iWork. I bought iWork and use Neo Office instead because it is more complete.
hopefully you've made your decision but I'm going to weigh in anyway. Coding in any *nix environment forces you to make more standard code as far as C++ goes... on the other hand Visual Studio is the best IDE I've used and it's Windows Only of course. The choice is yours... I'll probably buy another mac soon just for shits and giggles but if you really want to do some programming either box running Linux would be best.
I bought a macbook 1 and a half month ago, I been a mac user for just 2 years, but I enjoy using it. I have another PC at home, but still I prefer having mac.
yes, PC is really quite good for games.
But if you're an ordinary students that doesn't really into game, get a mac, macbook, or pro? its your choice.
Well, it's kinda obvious really, isn't it.
Get a Mac.
Why on earth people are talking about the cost of Windows and other software I can't figure out, doesn't everyone here use bittorrent???
BTW, is Dave a real person? Or just an excuse to fireup a bit of Mac vs PC debate in a Tech blog site to see if you can get the biggest number of comments ever!
I am most definitely a real person, I study at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and I was hoping it wouldn't have too many fanboy responses :)
I guess I am just too cynical!
Who said the dude is poor. What if he's completely rich and can buy anything under the sun? With unlimited resources, I'd buy both.
Macbook: Windows/Linux/OSX
Wintel laptop: Windows/Linux/OSX (after time spent on hacking)
But in reality we're all incredibly cheap here. Let's be realistic, if you don't care about legality, ANY software app can be had for free, OSes included. So let's ignore the software arguments, assuming we can just pirate software.
So it really just depends, are you willing to buy a more expensive laptop that looks like a Macbook, or buy a cheaper laptop thats a little uglier? And don't forget about time spent installing OSX on the wintel lappie.
To me, I'm shallow, i want a prettier laptop :)
My point is to say, if you pirate (which you probably will), Macs and PCs are the same, hardware AND software.
The only deciding factors are:
1. price
2. looks
3. time (spent on getting OSX on a PC, hacking, pirating etc.)
4. availability of hardware configurations (some manufacturers won't offer the perfect combination of hardware components you may want, such as hdmi, backlit keyboards, sd-card slots etc.)
Therefore, buy a Mac.
Sure u can get OSX running on a PC, but drivers are a big problem, there are lots of incompatabilies as Apple doesnt support other hardware. So you waste a lot of time for an imperfect setup.
Dave, I am going to way in here and take a gamble. I think I read you play guitar and for that plus the reasons everyone else told you, you should get a mac. Mac is just so awesome with music and instruments and the like, that I use it more than my $3000 sound board with my axe.
Awesome.. I'd love to do some recording, how does the line-in port stack up? My current lappy only has a powered mic port... so not good to use for a amp line out, or from a mixer in.... I've got an Epiphone Les Paul Studio... what axe have you got?
Oops I meant weigh.^
A B.C. Rich Avenge Son of the Beast. This baby rocks. Plus I use STRIKE on my macbook for virtual drums. That, coupled with my macbook makes for AWESOME effects and songs. I totally recommend it. The line in rocks. I don't really use it much because I use my M-Audio Black Box for amps and effects. I would use the built in ones, but the black box sounds great and I got it for $200 at guitarcenter.com. If you wanna use the line-in, I recommend the griffin iGuitar cable. But, I suggest a usb solution for maximum performance, such as this: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/JamLab-main.html . Like I said I totally recommend the Macbook just for that.
Get a real computer. The world works in Windows.
In over 10 years of windows use I have yet to see what this so called "Blue Screen of Death" looks like.
Turtle Lake, Durango, CO
Ask Engadget: PC or Mac for back to school?
I don't understand the question...
PC = Personal Computer
Mac = Personal Computer, but not a very good one!