<p>I've heard that a PC is a better choice for Cornell Engineering, but if I prefer macs will it work just as well to run windows on a mac?</p>
<p>I know plenty of Engineers who use macs, and they don’t seem to have any trouble</p>
<p>You can run Windows on a Mac as if it were a PC. So even if PCs were better for engineering, a Mac would be sufficient because it can run Windows like any other computer.</p>
<p>someone told me that that can sometimes be problematic- is that true?</p>
<p>I do it all the time and it’s not problematic at all. In fact, it’s very convenient when I can run both Windows and Mac OS X side by side. I have never encountered a problem running both.</p>
<p>MAC BOOK PROS are best at dual-booting/running windows (:</p>
<p>is that true for all majors? </p>
<p>(sorry i’m being so anal…I just don’t want to spend a ton of money and then regret my decision later and i really want to get a mac but so far a lot of people have recommended windows)</p>
<p>I guess it doesn’t really matter if you have a Mac or a PC. Both seem to do it. I personally bought a pc laptop for myself because I was more used to it than to mac, but I also have friends who wanted to try and buy mac. They are just as fine. So I’d say go with what you are comfortable with.</p>
<p>Well, engineering13, can you give us some reasons you want a mac over a pc? I suppose if you are not very computer savvy, then a mac makes sense, but other than that…well I could just go on a tangent on why not to get a mac.</p>
<p>I’d say more engineers have PCs, but those who have macs are fine too.</p>
<p>As someone who has used macs extensively… I must say that you should avoid them unless you don’t care about money. If money isn’t a factor, then you can dual-boot and that’s fine.</p>
<p>it’s mostly just that in my experience macs crash less frequently than pcs and tend to last longer, and since i’m used to a mac i’m more farmiliar with what to do when it does malfunction. and to answer that question i’m not very computer savvy…</p>
<p>I haven’t personally taken classes at Cornell…yet, but I think Macs would be fine considering how versatile they are. Furthermore, Macs do tend to last longer than PCs, they retain their value better and they tend to deal with OS updates much better than PCs. Finally, some of the most tech-savvy and most tech-aware people I know use Macs, so I don’t think sweeping generalizations should be made about the user base. In the end however you should use what you’re most comfortable with.</p>
<p>@mike4192
I have to assume you’re not very computer savvy, or else you would understand that OS X is a more powerful operating system.
I don’t hate Windows. I use Windows and OS X everyday, and occasionally Ubuntu, and have found Windows the least powerful of the three.</p>
<p>@engineering13
Dual-booting on a Mac with Windows will be a near-identical experience to running Windows on any other laptop; the only difference you will notice is that when you turn it on, it will prompt you for which operating system to boot into. Other than that, it is a standard Windows experience with all its pluses and minuses.
Just be aware that being the standard Windows experience means that Windows will NOT be any more stable on a Mac than on any other laptop of similar spec. Also be aware that while Macs, as you say, “last longer,” in all likelihood, your computer will become obsolete for Windows sooner than it will for OS X; so, while you could hypothetically use it for six years with OS X, after four years, Windows apps may have resource needs that make running Windows unbearable.
Also, ignore dean5150’s point about avoiding unless you don’t care about money; Macs generally have a lower TCO, and Apple’s education discounts, especially combined with the August iPod and printer credits, are very generous.</p>
<p>I usually try to avoid discussion about computers, but -</p>
<p>The argument that macs can be as cheap as PCs is just false. I’ve been using windows since 3.1, and I have never had a computer fail, in part or in whole. And windows has never crashed in the last 2-3 years. Of course I haven’t had a mac crash on me in over year also.</p>
<p>Taking into account just initial purchase price, Macs can be as cheap as, and generally are as cheap as, comparably equipped Windows computers, especially with the education discount. The things is that nine times out of ten, Windows computers are not comparable when it comes to specs or build quality. (I am NOT saying that they cannot be as well made or as well equipped; the fault is on ignorant buyers who rush out and buy the $500 15" cheapo notebook on sale and expect it to perform as well as a 15" MacBook Pro.)<br>
Further down into the future, when it comes to TCO, Macs have now lost their reputation as being “more expensive to upgrade,” as they are less picky about the RAM than they used to be and the processor can be swapped more easily since the move to x86. With a laptop, the only repair or upgrade one is likely to encounter will be if your hard drive fails, which is no more expensive on a Mac than on a laptop.
(As a side note, never, ever buy a RAM upgrade from Apple. Macs are no more expensive to upgrade than PCs so long as you do the upgrades yourself. Having a store or Apple upgrade your Mac will be significantly more expensive because they can get away with it.)</p>
<p>I wish I could say I haven’t had Windows crash on my in the last 2-3 years; it’s crashed on me 2-3 times in the past week. (I’m being unfair; normal people aren’t running Windows Media Encoder or Video Toaster.) Ironically, the last time my Mac crashed, it was running Microsoft Word…</p>
<p>"@mike4192
I have to assume you’re not very computer savvy, or else you would understand that OS X is a more powerful operating system.
I don’t hate Windows. I use Windows and OS X everyday, and occasionally Ubuntu, and have found Windows the least powerful of the three.</p>
<p>I use a mac pro everyday at school for video editing using final cut pro, so I do know the power they posses, and they are definitely much better than a pc in that area, as they are in other certain areas. </p>
<p>I am also a avid PC gamer, though, and know the huge short comings they have when it comes to PC games, especially high end ones. I also use a lot programs that don’t have osx counterparts (home made video converting programs, certain drivers…).</p>
<p>I also work at a dermatologists office where I maintain dozens of computers that the doctors, receptionists, nurses, billing people all use, and windows is by far the easiest to work with. They can be super cheap to custom build and buy an OS for since MS allows that, when on the other hand, we would have an extremely limited set of options if we were to go with OSX, which would have been much more expensive too. (for example, we wanted one cheap computer to run a powerpoint on the tv in the waiting room, and we built a pc with windows on it for less than like $400, OS and all. A similar mac would be much more expensive, and the low end parts in the PC would most likely be better than the ones on the mac) And it’s not just hardware, most of the special medical devices, and most of the printers really only have full support on windows.</p>
<p>For most personal and general business computing tasks, OS X is superior.</p>
<p>It’s big shortcomings, and I’ll admit they are massive, is their substandard graphics cards (this is slowly improving… slowly…) and specialized business tasks. There are programs that are just only made for Windows. Also, Apple does not make a low-resource computer for tasks such as the PowerPoint you mentioned (they’re afraid cheap computers dilute the premium brand).</p>
<p>But for an engineering student, who will need a moderately powerful computer anyway, a Mac is the best option.</p>
<p>(By the way, you’ve really found superior printer support on Windows? Isn’t printer support one of OS X’s big selling points?)</p>
<p>Our offices don’t just use regular printers. There are some special printers that print lab results that they get directly from the labs that test stuff like skin samples, which are rerouted by a (windows only) program on the computer they are hooked up to to the printer. </p>
<p>Also, one of the major billing programs we use, although it is meant to run on a unix system, is easily able to be ported and run on windows. I haven’t had any experience with it, but I doubt there is any support for in on OSX, I believe its called PCN. I’m just trying to show from my experience, macs have only seemed useful to me for certain tasks where they are better than windows.</p>
<p>If it runs on just UNIX, it will run on OS X. But you’re right; there’s a lot of specialized software that requires Windows.</p>
<p>Anyway, back to the OP, there will be no problem caused by your using a Mac. If any Windows-only need arises, you can run Windows.</p>