<p>I’m also an engineering student and can’t decide between PC and Mac.
Can anyone tell me some reasons NOT to get a mac?</p>
<p>Since Macs can now dual-boot into Windows, the only real difference between a PC and Mac is price. You do pay a bit less for a comparable PC.</p>
<p>If you take care of your PC and generally don’t be an idiot (unlike 90% of PC users), your PC will run fine for years and years.</p>
<p>…you clearly mean “You do pay a significant amount less for a PC with comparable specs as a Mac”…</p>
<p>Yes =D. (10char)</p>
<p>Battery life- Most PCs do not even come close to macs in that department. If they do then they are ultra tiny netbooks that are very weak. Mac laptops get at a minimum 5 hours of battery life on average.</p>
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<p>Very true. My friends’ Macs almost never run out of batteries, while everyone else always has to remember to bring their chargers along. </p>
<p>You can’t really go wrong with either Mac or PC in engineering. PCs are undeniably less expensive than comparable Macs. (A shrewd buyer can occasionally find $500 PCs that perform as well as lower-end to mid-range Macs, which cost twice as much.) </p>
<p>However, some of my artist friends say that Macs are well-worth their price tag, especially for things like video editing. Macs are also stylish and, to some people, somewhat of a status symbol. </p>
<p>One thing I would point out is that, with technology advancing so rapidly, computers often become obsolete within two to three years. Some people prefer buying a moderately priced laptop every couple of years, especially since laptops are usually difficult to upgrade. Even your $1000+ laptop might be considered junk in four years. </p>
<p>If you don’t mind not having a laptop to carry around campus, a really attractive option is to build your own desktop. More powerful components for cheaper, very customizable, and most importantly, easily upgradable.</p>
<p>I’m just surprised that we don’t have more people here using various flavors of Linux… who needs to pay for an operating system?</p>
<p>There is a good number of people who run Linux (maybe two to three for every ten?), but I feel the majority of engineers use Windows. Keep in mind that most laptops come with Windows pre-installed, so there is no financial incentive to go for a free operating system. I’ve been playing around with Ubuntu since winter break, but I still mostly use Windows because I’m just more familiar with it.</p>
<p>You really are paying for the brand name with Macs:</p>
<h2>[MacBook</a> Pro - Apple Store (U.S.)](<a href=“http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro]MacBook”>Buy MacBook Pro - Apple)</h2>
<p>Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26GHz
2GB Memory
160GB hard drive
SD card slot
Built-in 7-hour battery
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics</p>
<p>Bottom Line: $1,199.00</p>
<h2>[Newegg.com</a> - MSI GX620 NoteBook](<a href=“Not Found: 404 Error”>Not Found: 404 Error)</h2>
<p>Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26GHz
4GB Memory ***
320GB hard drive ***
ExpressCard slot ***
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics ***</p>
<p>Bottom Line: $849.99 ***</p>
<p>What do you know? A better-performing PC that’s one order of magnitude less in price than a comparable Mac. OS doesn’t matter. You can run Mac on your PC (OSx86) and Windows on your Mac. You should also ignore all that FUD you see on TV about Macs and PCs. Okay, Windows Vista was a flop, but Windows 7 is a far more polished OS. I am running RC1 on my Think Pad right now. The security and driver support are the best I’ve seen from Microsoft, and it’s very stable even for a beta version (more stable than Vista for sure). It has a built-in firewall, updated versions of Media Player and Internet Explorer, and it can run all of your old Windows programs.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, a Mac is a solid computer. The Mac OS is very stable and secure since it runs off of a BSD kernel, and the UI is very intuitive, but Mac knows they can overprice their systems and still have people buy them because they are trendy, and many people are willing to spend anything to maintain their “image”. Macs are much more geared toward casual users than PCs.</p>
<p>lol@ all the mac loving. macs are good for some things, and not for others. most specifically, any program that does not come preloaded onto a computer. granted, mac OS has some video and audio editing stuff preinstalled, but most freeware is written for PCs and most things that you can pirate are written for PCs.</p>
<p>depending on the kind of engineering, it probably does not matter. especially with the ability to run windows.</p>
<p>though, if you want to pay a fair price and know how to use a computer, get a PC. there may even be programs that you’re major requires (CS or ECE come to mind…) that will not work on a mac. don’t overpay for an inferior product. viruses are only a problem for people that are oblivious and don’t know what they are doing. it is not a valid argument to say that macs are better or more stable, as windows is just as stable if you use it correctly.</p>
<p>I have a macbook, and my dad claims that for engineering you need a lot of software that might not be mac compatible…and has anyone used iworks?</p>
<p>^You can dual boot (i.e., install windows to your mac and install whatever software you need in windows if it’s not compatible). what’s your major btw?</p>
<p>I’m in bioengineering. How do you install windows onto the mac?</p>
<p>Look for something called Parallels or VMWare Fusion.</p>
<p>You will also need a CD of a windows OS to install onto your new partition.</p>
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Bioengineering doesn’t use a lot of software (from what I heard). Probably Matlab, M$ office… and those do have Mac version</p>
<p>The largest computing component of bioeng revolves around bioinformatics. I recently wrote a simple algorithm for constructing phylogeny trees and guess what, it runs slow as hell on both mac and windows so I’m just going to take a wild guess here that your operating system does not determine processing power. (:O, blasphemy says the Mac guys) Of course, sequencing the complete genomics and proteomics of a living organism isn’t within the scope of a personal desktop/laptop so I really doubt that the subtle differences in processing power between the two systems really matter at all.</p>
<p>Beyond that, the usual productivity tools that you need and the simple calculators are available in both flavors, albeit Windows does have a larger application base. Then again, Mac is considered by many to be more “arty.” Plus, while not legally sound, it’s entirely possible to run OSX on a cheaper PC, and vice versa, Windows on a Mac.</p>
<p>Now I just have one question for you guys, how the heck do you get used to using a mouse with just one button?</p>