<p>does anyone know which is better to have?</p>
<p>it doesn't really matter.</p>
<p>If you don't care, go with the infrastructure of the school.</p>
<p>I have a mac and I really haven't had too many problems. Every once in a while there is a program you can't run on a mac, but there are tons of computer labs on the E-Quad with everyone engineering software you can imagine loaded on them. You can also run windows on macs, so that solves most of the problems. I dunno, it takes a little extra effort with a mac, but it really is personal preference.</p>
<p>yeah, if you have a mac and for some reason need to use a PC, you can always steal your friend's computer</p>
<p>It all depends on what you want to do. Some majors/activities (research, project teams) may need Windows based programs. Some classes may need Windows based programs. But now you can run Windows on some Macs. You just have to get a copy of Windows. Rebooting into Windows may become hassle though (since you have your life on the Mac partition and you work in Windows).</p>
<p>If you want a straight answer, I'd say PC. ECE, CS, ORIE, InfoSci, and some project teams/research will all use Windows programs, such as Visual Studios, Labview, Simulink, Quartus, etc.</p>
<p>Pick up a Dell Inspiron with a $400 off coupon from couponmountain.com. A Mac isn't really worth the extra dough..</p>
<p>I have engineering friend who use both without incidents or complaints. Windows is easy to run on a mac, you just push an icon on the desktop and windows opens. </p>
<p>There's not much extra dough involved, but it's well worth it.</p>
<p>As I understand it, in order do what gomestar says, you need Parallels, not simply Boot Camp.</p>
<p>I actually have no idea what you need. </p>
<p>I thrive on Safari, iTunes, and office.</p>
<p>I think you need Parallels only if you want to be able to switch from Mac to Windows with the touch of one button...</p>
<p>If you use only boot camp you can't do that...I think you have to log out of mac to get into windows and vice versa. However...I have a PowerBook and don't have capacity to do this...so I'm not 100% sure</p>
<p>Parallels and Boot Camp will solve all of your compatibility issues.</p>