<p>I'm starting college this fall as a music major, specifically piano performance, and I've heard that a MAC is much better for music majors. I guess it's because of some specific software you must use in theory classes or something? Does anyone have any information/opinions/personal experience with this? I currently have a PC laptop, but it's getting somewhat old, and slow, so I will be getting a new computer for college most likely, regardless of what type I need.</p>
<p>Last years thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/663784-computers-performance-majors.html?highlight=computer[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/663784-computers-performance-majors.html?highlight=computer</a></p>
<p>To be honest, a pc laptop or a mac will do you just as well in school I suspect, the power of the laptops these days and such means either will probably do. Unless the program uses mac only software that you have to use, you can pretty much do well with either platform. </p>
<p>In terms of cost pc laptops still cost a lot less, but one way to get a good mac laptop at a decent price would be to get a reconditioned one from Apple, you can save a lot and still have a new machine with a full warranty. If you do buy a mac, I highly recommend getting the apple care package, that extends the warranty of the machine for 3 years total, and it is worth it. My son’s laptop’s network port went, and because it is on the motherboard it would take replacing the whole motherboard, which was 800 bucks…with applecare, it was covered. Likewise, though it isn’t official, they will often cover replacement batteries under the warranty if they go, least they did for me (though batteries are less an issue, you can get apple batteries for 40 bucks or so on Ebay).</p>
<p>If you can afford it, I would get a Mac, even though I work on pc’s. Among other things, if you have to run PC apps, you can do that on a mac using Parallels running windows, so if you run into something you need that is pc only, you could run it. One of the nicest parts is you don’t have to worry about viruses as much, very few are written for macs:).</p>
<p>I’d say the industry standard is mac, because it’s so easy to dual-boot on them, which means you could run windows 7 on a mac. also many software are mac-only, and for the most part they run really well and i never get any viruses/pop-ups, of course i find the prices disgusting, and fixing a network port means changing the motherboard? what a joke, the benefit of pc’s are being able to fix/build everything yourself for 1/100th of the price. anyways, see if you can get any college student deals, they have a lot of those, most of the time they throw in a free ipod or something. i’d say contact the school or schools you’re looking at and see what they would expect</p>
<p>musicprnt is right on the money with what he writes about Macs, how to get them, and PCs vs Macs. </p>
<p>A reconditioned Mac will run you more than a PC but they are easier to use, more reliable, and the tech support is unbeatable. I have four kids in an all-Mac household (converts from PCs.) My oldest who is out on her own did just buy a PC laptop to save money, but if you can afford the few hundred extra, get the Mac for the ease of use and the support.</p>
<p>I have owned (including my kids’) 13 mac laptops and I am pretty sure every one of them has had its hard drive, or more, replaced (and some more than once) under warranty for no extra cost. It’s not that the computers are poorly made, it’s just that laptops get jiggled and bumped and the hard drives die. I work at a university with great mac discounts, but I have bought the last several as reconditioned units (they seem for all intents and purposes to be identical to brand-new machines) and saved even more that I would with my discount. I never buy extended warranties for appliances but I ALWAYS buy Apple Care. </p>
<p>As for software-- Mac native software like iMovie, quicktime and garage band is easy to use, but honestly, you are probably going to be fine with a Windows machine. If you go with Window’s you’ll be okay, if perhaps a little more frustrated when you need tech support.</p>
<p>Check to see what the prevailing culture is at the school. If it is nearly all Macs or nearly all PC’s, any problems you have are likely to be much easier to solve by keeping with the crowd. If you are very computer-savvy and there is somewhere nearby that can provide service if needed, then you might be OK going with the other. If there are pretty large numbers of both, I agree with what has been said already.</p>
<p>Both my kids wound up with Macs. That worked out fine for my daughter who went to a college where there were a lot of both. It has not worked out quite as well for my son, who attends a college that is >95% PC oriented. He can use the dual boot capability to run nearly anything that demands a PC and use the computer center for the oddball PC program that the Mac has problems with. Getting a hard disk replaced with no Apple store within a hundred miles meant he had to do without it for a couple of weeks. Thankfully, he had saved most of what he needed on the college network where he could get at it from the one or two Macs that were in the computer center there.</p>
<p>Most definitely get AppleCare if you get a Mac laptop. It will pay for itself.</p>
<p>You can probably get a good deal on a Mac through your college bookstore. Last year we bought our son a Macbook Pro for $1100 and Applecare was $183. It came with a free iPod Touch. Were able to order it online and have it shipped to our house before he headed off to school.</p>
<p>One note, you don’t need to dual boot the mac. With the parallels program, you run windows as an application under the mac os, which is kind of neat, because you have both environments at your fingertips, no need to boot between them. There are probably pc apps that won’t work in that environment, but working around a lot of people with macs, hardcore users who use that capability (the software where I work is pc based, but they prefer to work on macs) and these kinds of programs tend to be fussy and they work there. </p>
<p>I also agree, check with the school, apple is known for its educational discounts (it is one of the reasons so many schools use macs), and you can get some sweet deals that way, they might even offer an educational discount through their website for a qualified student.</p>
<p>D3’s school actually requires macs for many majors, although not hers. In the absence of a firm requirement, her father - who is the family tech support and who has a “thing” about macs - insisted she get a PC. So far, it hasn’t been a problem, but it’s easy to pick out her laptop in a pile.</p>
<p>I hate answering these questions, there are indeed Mac folks and PC folks. I was always a PC folk. I built computers, took care of them at work and nursed them through a host of Windows problems. A few years ago I got a free iMac for a bunch of website work I did and from that point I was a believer. I don’t want to get a call from my kids telling me about all of their computer woes. I don’t want to spend a couple hundred bucks a year on anti everything software or spend a ridiculous amount of time on malware, spyware, viruses and the rest. I have heard that Macs can have these problems (I’ve heard this from my PC buddies) but I have never actually met someone who has had actually had these problems (the friends of some of my PC buddies have had them but they are kept in a closet somewhere). I have also never met a person who has gone from a Mac to a PC, never.</p>
<p>I want my computers to take care of themselves. This is why I am now a Mac person. I now own three macs and as the PC’s in my house die out they are being replaced by Macs. The extra money I spend on Macs are more than made up for by the problems and costs inherent in PC upkeep. I actually have to set my computer calendars to remind me to reboot and reset the ram every 14 days because I found that months could go by until I realized I was due.</p>
<p>So I run a business, use the internet, store music and pics, manipulate both, communicate visually, verbally and textually, make presentations, word process and play games on my Mac, and do them all without losing speed, time or anything else. I do not have Parallels on any of my Macs either. Is there something I’m missing ?</p>
<p>Oh yeah, three Home and Student Office licenses for $99 on sale. The upgrade from Leopard OS to Snow Leopard, $45 for three licenses. Try that on a PC.</p>
<p>I’ve had to call Apple once, took three minutes to get a tech guy on the phone.</p>
<p>I’m lucky to have several Apple stores not far but I have only gone to the genius bar twice and both times, they took care of my problem right there and actually took me within 5 minutes of my appointment time.</p>
<p>DD is off to college in September, and like DS she’s going with a Mac and of course with AppleCare.</p>
<p>Sagiter-</p>
<p>There are applications that won’t run on the Mac, and if someone is into gaming the mac is not a great gaming platform, nor are many titles on there (obviously, that would be if someone was a gamer). There are also idiosynchratic things with the Mac, like Steve Jobs deciding to remove native Java support from the MacOS or his war on flash, and there is talk that on the mac they may switch to a model where all software for the mac would need to be gotten from an ap store like they do on the Iphone and Ipad (how they would do this I am not sure; might be they would put into the OS a block that stopped loading software from the cd drive or something), which could cause issues. BTW, the last time I upgraded my windows office suite, it allowed licenses for up to 3 machines as well, the office suite is done by microsoft, and it cost me 79 bucks for office home suite…</p>
<p>Where macs are expensive is if they need repairs, while the OS is relatively trouble free, when stuff goes wrong you are in apples hands for a lot of things, because of the way they do things. A failed network port shouldn’t require a new system board, but it does on the macbook for example, and things do fail on the machines, it is why I recommended apple care. </p>
<p>I am not anti mac, and when my current pc croaks I am going to switch to a macbook pro, for a number of reasons, just saying there are downsides to the mac. And as the mac has picked up market share, there are now viruses and such out there, malware and the like. Not as common as on windows, obviously, but it is part of the threat that is out there as the mac has become more popular, there was an article in the Times about a growing number of threats to the mac os.</p>
<p>I’ve called Apple Tech Support (if you go through the store for education, the response time is super fast) literally dozens of times over the past ten years and the response time is always very fast-- instant to five minutes. The tech people are courteous and knowledgeable.* If you are in a remote location and have a troubled laptop (not true for a desktop, unfortunately) they will FedEx you a empty box, fix the computer and FedEx it back.** The turnaround time is often less than 72 hours-- not sure how they manage it. The last time my daughter needed a new hard drive they also replaced her worn keyboard and cracked cover free of charge, and we had not asked them to do that. </p>
<p>As for the education discounts, do check out refurbished Macs on the Apple website. I get the edu discount from Penn, and my kids get them from their schools as well. A refurbished laptop-- if they have one available at the time you are shopping-- can save you hundreds over the edu discount price and will come with full warranty, and is still eligible for Apple Care. I always check the discount page first before buying.</p>
<p>As for cross platform, I’ve never needed to use the Windows platform on my Mac; it just hasn’t come up. The only time I’ve been tempted is for syncing my Blackberry because the BB Mac software isn’t as complete, but it hardly seems worth the trouble.</p>
<p>In 10+ years of heavy Mac use I have never had a computer virus.</p>
<p>–
- Note: computer tech support is a different department from iTunes tech support-- my experience with the latter has been frustrating</p>
<p>**I am not in a remote location but I do this anyway, as it is easier than driving to the tempting Apple store to talk to the so-called geniuses. Turn-around for mail-in laptop repairs has been quicker than turn-around for Apple Store repairs on my iMac.</p>
<p>If you do go with a mac you don’t have to go through the college to get the student discount. You can also get it from your local apple store with your high school ID.</p>
<p>Good advice from all to check with your intended school before deciding pc or mac.</p>
<p>Btw there is also an educational discount on Finale software. I purchased a discounted copy for my D on ebay.</p>
<p>Does the Finale software only work on Macs? Or does it work on PCs, but just not as well?</p>
<p>It works on both. In fact the one kit we purchased came with both and you install the one for your OS.</p>
<p>D says she has used Finale on both. The shortcuts are different. She thinks the mac version is slightly better because it was originally designed for mac.</p>
<p>You can also download Finale Notepad for free from the Finale website, for either platform.</p>
<p>ok, thanks LGSMom…it does sound like Finale is the program used in colleges, and for Macs specifically. I’m wondering though how much I would use Finale, and other music software programs like that as a performance major though…probably just in theory classes, right? Anyone have any info on that, as far as how many software programs you actually use as a performance major? I might take a couple music composition classes though for my music electives (there’s like 3 required electives at my school), and then I would use those things, but I’m not sure how much else…</p>
<p>There is no need to purchase expensive software until you really need it. Software has a shelf-life so if you buy too far in advance you might have to pay for an upgrade by the time you are ready to use it. Also it might be available in you college computer center without you having to buy it yourself. D used the free version while becoming acquainted. As a vocalist she enjoys arranging music and putting songs in the right key for her voice.</p>
<p>Ok, so I can’t really know exactly what software I’m going to need in college. However, from what I hear on CC and otherwise, it sounds like a Mac would be better suited to most software programs, and just in general better suited for a music major, so it would probably be safe to go with that. </p>
<p>I currently have a PC laptop, and it will be 2 1/2 years old by the end of the school year, and it’s getting really slow and locks up at least once every other day, which I’m getting extremely annoyed at by now.</p>
<p>Note that Notepad is only free for a 30-day trial these days, after which it costs $10 to register and continue to use, and that Notepad is to Finale roughly as WordPad is to Adobe Design Premium.</p>