<p>I really want a Mac but I am afraid of software conflicts with Macs since some programs run on only PC’s and I don’t really want to convert my Mac into a Windows computer. If I did get a PC what brand would I get? I was thinking of Dell XPS or HP Envy Series.</p>
<p>The HP envy line is actually pretty nice if you wanna stick to a PC, but if you want to make the switch to Mac, you shouldn’t really be running into any software problems at this point in time, unless its some sort of super specific programs that you run (generally the most common windows programs have Mac versions/counterparts)</p>
<p>Have you looked around the College of Biological Sciences web pages? I’m looking into this same question for my daughter, but haven’t seen anything yet. UCD in general expresses no preference between Macs and PCs, but they do say to look at your individual college and department pages. I haven’t found anything yet on the CBS pages or student handbooks indicating a preference.</p>
<p>Why would you want a Mac in the first place? Unless you are one of those guys who wears scarves during the summer while sitting at Starbucks, I doubt you will need one. You will be happier with a laptop running Windows 7, especially if you are going into Biology.</p>
<p>I’ll be going to Biochemistry + Molecular Biology at Davis this year and I will most likely be picking up a Lenovo Y580 or a Sager NP6165. Besides, OS X will bottleneck you in terms of software, and the limited SSD storage capacity of a Macbook Air certainly won’t help you if you plan on dual booting.</p>
<p>either one should work fine, though if you are really concerned about it I’d call and ask. I don’t think bio has too many complex programs you will have to be running at home, anything very specialized you encounter you will probably be using in a research lab, in which case you wouldn’t be using your own computer.</p>
<p>This thread makes no sense. Theduck is right, get whichever computer you like best. You will have no software conflicts whatsoever.</p>