<p>I’ll be going to BC next year and was wondering what kind of laptop is best for the school</p>
<p>I’m thinkin either a Dell or a Macbook. I’ve had a PC in my house my whole life, but I’ve heard Vista’s got a lot of problems, and I dont wanna have to deal with computer problems when I start school. I’d have to learn how to use a mac but I plan on getting the computer soon so I’d have time before school starts, and I hear its not as troublesome/hard to use.</p>
<p>Any suggestions for which is better as a student at BC?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Our D is graduating from BC on Monday (sigh...where did the time go?? She has loved it!) She used their laptop purchase program, and that was very successful. You can pick the type of computer from their list, they load up everything on it and they service it, loaning you another. It was a great way to go for her! Check into what they are offering the Class of '11 and see how that compares to what you have seen elsewhere.</p>
<p>Congrats on going to BC--it's great!!</p>
<p>What school are you in? If you're CSOM, then I'd definitely recommend getting a PC, unless you plan on running Windows on your Mac with either Boot Camp or Parallels. Generally speaking, the business world is ruled by PCs. Macs have started to make a slight dent, but not enough to really be noticed (or to warrant widespread support).</p>
<p>If you're in CAS, school of education, etc. then go for it and get the Mac if you prefer it.</p>
<p>Honestly, I've been running Vista as my sole operating system since Beta 2, and I've had very few problems. There were two minor driver problems that caused sporadic issues early on, but both one was fixed well before RTM (Release To Manufacturing), and the other was fixed shortly thereafter. Most apps work fine on Vista. I'd give it a pretty solid endorsement.</p>
<p>Of course, it's your call.</p>
<p>I have been using a mac for the past three years and absolutely love it. That said, I agree with ace in that macs aren't popular among the buisness crowd.
A note on ordering from BC, I just ordered a Macbook Pro and they attached a roughly 500$ premium on it. All you get extra is the 4 year applecare (which is significant) and MS office. If price is a major issue then I would go through the apple store online with the education discount.</p>
<p>what specific programs for business can you not run on a mac that make them unpopular for people in CSOM?</p>
<p>Although it doesn't count as a program that won't run on the Mac, it should be noted that Office for Mac is completely different from Office on the PC, and the two versions of Excel have some key differences in the way they are set up and the way they function. Also, Outlook is not included in the package (and no, Entourage is not comparable). </p>
<p>The greatest problem exists for accounting majors, since most industry software will not run on the Mac. Files created in QuickBooks Pro for Mac are not compatible with the PC version, and cannot be transferred. You also cannot open backups of files created using the PC version. Further, there are no professional tax preparation applications that run on the Mac. I believe that there are also some research tools and other applications in the finance field, etc. that will not run on the Mac.</p>
<p>I suppose you could get away with using a Mac while in school... but you'd really be doing yourself a disservice, since you'd be getting yourself accustomed to a platform that you will never use in the professional world.</p>
<p>Well, I'm in CSOM..but as a marketing major and the only issue that I've had while using a Mac is that programs such as SPSS and Microsoft Access are not available. The former, SPSS, can't be run on the new Intel-based platforms, BUT they're releasing an update this summer that will solve all of those problems. (I'd include Microsoft Publisher (this isn't available either), but I'd rather just use Adobe Photoshop..marketing major..trying to go into ad designing blah blah tangent...)</p>
<p>Other than that, Microsoft Office isn't that much different. The Excel files have the same extension. I know when I took the CSOM core, Computers in Management, I was right there using my Macbook creating homework files too. Funny, so was Professor Gallaugher..he was using a Powerbook. The Word files have the same extension too. </p>
<p>You want to create a presentation? You have the option of using Powerpoint, but you also have Keynote. The Mac version of Word would be Pages, which I use to write my papers, until Office releases an update that runs faster on Intel. Plenty of my professors have allowed that option too. So, it's not like you're strictly restricted to ONLY using a PC.</p>
<p>If you're looking for a mail client...Apple Mail is just as efficient, if not better than Outlook, but that's a personal preference.</p>
<p>So what am I saying? Unless you plan on being an accounting/finance/<em>insert those other CSOM majors here</em>, I wouldn't totally rule out a Mac. I know everyone says that it's soooo hard to get used to Mac OS. Put it this way: I just converted to being a Mac user last summer. It's not hard, unless you're a total dunce.</p>