<p>I will be attending Harvard College next year with the intent of majoring in a biological science and am trying to determine what computer to buy. </p>
<p>I have a friend who works in IT who has advised me to get a small, cheap netbook for portability and also a more powerful desktop with a much larger screen to ease eye strain and provide more power and storage space for lager papers/projects. I have also heard that Windows and Mac, although using different operating systems, are similar enough that a Mac isn't worth paying the extra premium. I have always used Windows, so I am not sure if I should switch to a Mac now even though I am not a huge fan of Vista. </p>
<p>So, I was wondering what you think would be best for me? I know that I want some type of laptop, but I don't know if I should just get a more powerful, larger laptop (and sacrifice a little portability) or if I should get a small netbook and a more powerful desktop? Thanks in advance</p>
<p>Or you could get a laptop and an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. That way you don’t have any synching issues between a netbook and a desktop.</p>
<p>Two computers is a hassle and anyone who recommends it has never really done it for an extended period of time. You constantly have to deal with, “Oh, that file/program’s on the other computer”. So then you get a flash drive, which is more hassle if you constantly have to save to and load from it. There are programs that sync files over the internet, but this won’t work for something as large as a music, video, or photo library. </p>
<p>Plus, who really wants to be tethered to their dorm whenever you’re writing a big project? I’ve had a netbook before, and believe me, you don’t really want to type even a short email on such a small keyboard.</p>
<p>Of course, if one of your computers fails, you’d have a backup. Also, its nice to use a different computer if your main one is doing something intensive like rendering video or something. IMHO, these benefits don’t outweigh the costs and you can buy a computer that’s both reliable enough to negate the first benefit, and powerful enough to negate the second.</p>
<p>Also, Macs are definitely worth a look. Some people have a mental block against them, and some people have a mental block against anything but them, generally you should ignore either type of person, like your friend in IT. Depending on what you’re looking for, a Mac very well may not be a good value for you, but only YOU should make that decision, really. Macs are definitely different than PC’s in several key ways.</p>