<p>Does Rice offer any discounts for specific laptop brands? Does it also sell any laptops? Are PCs or Macs more popular on campus? Any comments will be appreciated!</p>
<p>read this thread <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=21047&highlight=computers+rice%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=21047&highlight=computers+rice</a></p>
<p>You can buy a Macintosh on an educational discount; if you visit the Apple Store, you can receive such a discount by showing your HS or College ID. If you want the laptop sooner, you need to log on to the Apple Store for Education; when you purchase something from there, you do not need a student ID of any sort.</p>
<p>My DD bought the ibook configured w/Rice specs through the apple store online, (but got the 14" screen, instead of the 12" one, since it is her primary computer.) She really, really likes it.</p>
<p>I love Apple.</p>
<p>I love Orange. </p>
<p>so what?</p>
<p>Yeh macs are awesome.. on my powerbook right now.</p>
<p>anxiousmom, what did you mean by "rice specs"? I'm still trying to decide whether i should be getting a mac or a PC. The only hesitation I have about getting a Mac is the price and the fact that I will have to get new mac-compatible software instead of just reusing software I have for a new PC. Any ideas?</p>
<p>
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The only hesitation I have about getting a Mac is the price and the fact that I will have to get new mac-compatible software instead of just reusing software I have for a new PC.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think the only relevant software that will need replacement is Microsoft Office and the student license (you get three) is 149$.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Power Mac G5 Dual 2GHz
Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
1GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x512
160GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra w/64MB DDR SDRAM
56k V.92 internal modem
Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM)
Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English</p>
<p>Apple Cinema Display (20" flat panel)
$3,243.00
[/quote]
</p>
<p>:O</p>
<p>I am thinking an architect major would need such a system...</p>
<p>If you really want to save money on an Apple, I suggest getting a student membership with the Apple Developer Connection. </p>
<p>My PowerBook Price:
Before ADC Discount: $3600
After ADC Discount: $2000</p>
<p>sounds like a sweet deal, but doesnt it cost a lot to be part of ADC? how much was it for you to get your student membership?</p>
<p>I was actually invited by someone, but a student membership costs 99$; the cost is negated by the savings.</p>
<p>I don't know, i got a compaq laptop and it was about $800.
It's been fine. Get the kind of computer you think you will need/use.
Desktops are fine. Macs are fine. PCs are fine. Get what will work for you personally.</p>
<p>If you go to <a href="http://www.applestore.com%5B/url%5D">www.applestore.com</a> , and then click on "Education" under "more stores" (in little gray letters on the right upper side of the screen) it takes you to a screen where you can choose your college/university. After you find Rice U, click on the recommended systems icon. The ibook configuration is $1200.+. My DD used the Rice config, but with a 14" screen size, and I think "Office" was only $100. when purchased with system last year. I think with notebook insurance, bluetooth, lock etc. the total was around $1400-$1500.</p>
<p>how much warranty on a notebook is suggested for a college student? Also, can anyone give me some of the pros and cons of owning an apple over a PC? Thanks!</p>
<p>I have a powerbook which retailed for 1599 and got it for 1450 with the student discount on apple's website. You really need to look at all the options though for a mac because the ibook for example does not come with bluetooth ($79) while the powerbook does. When I configured an ibook comparable to the powerbook, it turned out to be 1420 vs. 1450. Now that Apple has upped the powerbook's specs (1.5ghz, 512 RAM) AND decreased its price by $100, this advantage is even more pronounced. </p>
<p>If you are on a tight budget, you can get a barebones 12" ibook for 949. If you can't afford a laptop at all, the mac mini is only 499, though you might have to lug your CRT all the way to rice. Also if you are on a really tight budget, don't bother with office, you can get that either in another form or a pirated (illegal? who cares?) copy. </p>
<p>PROS - One answer: mac os x. <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/%5B/url%5D">http://www.apple.com/macosx/</a>
CONS - This is a great deal more complex. There are a lot of myths surrounding compatibilty and software available for mac os x. Some people believe that because Apple runs on a different platform, it is a different creature that is not compatible with Windows machines. This is not true. Hopefully people will be more aware on this forum, but computer-related tasks such as accessing a network (such as Rice's), email, instant messaging, web browsing and word processing are all extremely easy to do on the mac with in my opinion better software. What puts mac over the top in this arena is its ability to do complex tasks (which would require extra software on windows) right out of the box, such as digital video editing (iMovie) and audio editing/creation (garage band).</p>
<p>Apple's iLife suite pretty much takes care of your computer life, with a few exceptions, and I would recommend Quicksilver for productivity, Adium for IM, OpenOffice for word processing, Poisoned for file-sharing, and optionally Firefox for web browsing (uses the same engine as iLife's Safari web browser anyway). All these programs are free. </p>
<p>I have yet to find my mac falling short in any area. Graphic design, which I do not dabble in, is generally accepted as being awesome on the mac, and there is plenty of software for it. For programming, it does not really matter what type of computer you are on, but mac is unix based (like linux is), so there are tons of open-source IDE's for mac. With the Fink project, linux programs (which are largely free) can be packaged to mac os x, which opens up a whole new world of free software for college students especially. </p>
<p>I suppose quantitatively there are more applications for Windows, but that does not answer why so many developers, cs professors, and cs students are on unix boxes running linux or mac. Because these types of people are more common in the mac crowd, there is disproportionatlely more math/science software. Also, because so many people are on windows, spyware/adware/viruses are a huge problem. There are no viruses for mac. I know you may be skeptical, but really there are no viruses right now (google 'mac os x virus', too many links). I actually scanned my computer using a linux app and it scanned for like 2 hours, found nothing. </p>
<p>Lastly I think one advantage that goes underlooked is how amazing Apple is. Even mac users tend not to notice the difference between how Microsoft runs their comany compared to Apple, probably because they don't affiliate themselves with both at any given time, but it is tremendous. Apple is there to help you. On their site, for example, they have Top 10 Downloads which list things like Firefox and Thunderbird, a mail app which couples with Firefox. Mac ships with Apple's proprietary Mail.app, and Thunderbird is direct competition, but Apple is a company that is aware of recent software and is willing to share it with its customers, no matter who wrote it. Would you ever see Microsoft posting links to download Firefox? Never. I repeat, never. Apple also has their own stores (which are free hotspots btw), and you can get your computer serviced there. Long post I know, but I could answer any specific questions if you guys have any.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Also, because so many people are on windows, spyware/adware/viruses are a huge problem. There are no viruses for mac. I know you may be skeptical, but really there are no viruses right now (google 'mac os x virus', too many links). I actually scanned my computer using a linux app and it scanned for like 2 hours, found nothing.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This benefit of Mac OS X must be emphasized. There are viruses for the Mac, but they are not nearly as rampant as on the Windows platform. This reduced risk negates the need for an anti-virus software, and even a firewall, though OS X has one built-in. OS X itself is a very stable, bug-free, operating system and does not possess nearly as many security-holes as Windows. </p>
<p>Another benefit is the Mac OS X GUI (Graphical User Interface), which is fast, stable, and intuitive. The reason the Mac OS X GUI is faster is because the graphics card renders all the animations, which significantly reduces CPU load.</p>
<p>In April, Apple is releasing Tiger (Mac OS 10.4), which will have even greater stability and more features. From my test copy, I can tell you a about several new features:
1) "Spotlight," which is akin to an extremely fast search engine that catalogues all information on your computer, including e-mail addresses and word documents, which allows you to "call them up" in mere seconds using meta-tags. For example, typing "John" in the Spotlight search box provides me with all the relevant data, including John's e-mail address, all word-documents with the word "John" in it, and so forth.
2) "Dashboard" allows you to activate numerous modules at the stroke of a button. For example, upon pressing F12, I can now use a dictionary, control iTunes, activate a calculator and so forth; think of it as an extra "layer" (semi-transparent so your work is not disrupted) that allows you to perform quick tasks and then return back to the work-at-hand</p>
<p>More features of Tiger are listed here: <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/%5B/url%5D">http://www.apple.com/macosx/</a></p>
<p>Finally, it is worth noting that the reason the Macintosh is very stable is because there is significantly less hardware variation in a Macintosh system, which allows for greater OS compatability. For example, there are thousands, if not millions, of different configurations in the PC platform, which renders an Operating System incompatible at times. Since the Mac hardware platform is strictly regulated, which is the benefit of Apple owning both hardware and software divisions, the OS itself is very stable and incompatibilies are rarely found.</p>
<p>Edit: By the way, my PowerBook is nearly two years-old, and it is still as fast and as stable as it was the day I bought it; I have seen a plethora of Mac users with systems older than four years who are still enjoying their computers, a sight that is rare in the PC world, where merely opening Internet Explorer already floods your system with spyware, rendering it slower, and where hardware and software advancement is so quick that the system itself is rendered obsolete in a year.</p>
<p>Edit 2:
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I suppose quantitatively there are more applications for Windows
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You will be surprised at what you can find at <a href="http://www.versiontracker.com%5B/url%5D">www.versiontracker.com</a> and macupdate.com. I found a "Logical Fallacy" program, which is a quick catalogue of all the logical fallacies and a program that calculates my GPA. Moreover, the former program is not available on the Windows platform; as you can see, the open-source community for Mac is enormous.</p>
<p>Macs stability can almost wholly be contributed to darwin.</p>
<p>Incorrect or outdated hardware drivers can exacerbate instability, so a controlled hardware program does have some effect on stability, no matter how minimal it is; boethian is correct, however, in that nearly all of OS X's stability can be attributed to its framework.</p>
<p>Pay software is available with student discounts as well. All of Macromedia and Adobe products, Office for mac (<a href="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=37-116-168&depa=0%5B/url%5D">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=37-116-168&depa=0</a> and "includes 3 installs" so you can legally have it on 3 machines) - $134.95 (windows is $125.49)...and so on.</p>
<p>This works for students of all levels...my family has been using these discounts since I was in middle school =).</p>