<p>Hi, so I do not know that much about computers, but I prefer Macs. When I was looking at the Macbook pro, I saw all these options and different software. I have seen the basic requirements for memory, but what software is needed?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Whatever you purchase, be sure and use your education discount. Pending on where you buy, it can save you some money on hardware and software. If you are looking at the MacBook Pro the standard amount of memory will be fine. You really do not need to upgrade that unless you are planning on doing serious video editing or plan on running many programs at once. As far as software goes it is really a good idea to pick up a copy of Microsoft Office. You should be able to save some money on this with the education discount. Also, ND’s tech store may be offering a deal on the software so that is worth looking into. I can’t really think of any other must have software. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>thanks for the help!</p>
<p>what about protective software? should I purchase that?</p>
<p>Sorry for the late reply. No need to get antivirus software. That is provided free of charge. Once you get your netID you can start installing it.</p>
<p>depending on your major, you will have to install other software, but for the beginning of school, you should only need Microsoft Office (word, excel, powerpoint).</p>
<p>As an engineer, I have had to download extra software that has been free of charge (ND pays for it) and I know other majors who also download software onto their computers as well. </p>
<p>But the standard Macbook Pro should be fine for college as long as you aren’t planning on putting too many superficial software on it (games and things like that).</p>
<p>We went with the school’s Lenovo offer when my daughter was entering. I think it was about $1400. The Lenovo site featured testimonies about these laptops surviving all sorts of accidents (being dropped in water, etc.). My daughter spilled water on her keyboard during the second week of her freshman year and the warranty didn’t cover it. It cost $800 to fix. The thing finally died during her senior year and she replaced it with an HP from Staples, for a little over $400. She says that the cheap laptop is far better than the Lenovo. I too recently bought an HP laptop from Staples and I’m perfectly satisfied with it. We could have bought our daughter several of them instead of coping with the Lenovo problems over the years. Students have much cheaper options now with way more GB and speed. Also, my daughter found that the larger keyboard was more comfortable to use and stayed with a 15" laptop; she said that the tradeoff was well worth it.</p>
<p>where do you find the antivirus software?</p>
<p>Follow the Downloads link under the Software heading to download. Here is the link.
[Office</a> of Information Technologies - University of Notre Dame](<a href=“http://oit.nd.edu/]Office”>http://oit.nd.edu/)</p>
<p>I echo aristophanes’ post. You can really find great computers for relatively little at places like Staples and Best Buy. If you are the kind of person who does not need a powerful machine and is unlucky when it comes to dropping or spilling things on computers, then these machines are probably ideal. It used to be that the cheapest machines could not meet the demands of a university education, but they have really come a long way and are adequate for most. They may not have the longevity of a Mac but they should last at least a few years.</p>