Mac or PC in college?? Any opinions please...

<p>How is Intel better/different than PowerPC and by how much?</p>

<p>PowerPCs are much slower than the new Intel chips, the exception is the PowerMac G5 (the G5 was never used in a laptop). Now, I do believe that PowerPC computers will be supported for quite some time, but if you're going to have this machine for the next 4 years or so, you're going to want the speed of an Intel chip. Not only that, but today, Apple announced that the new intel macs can dual-boot in XP, for more information check out <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>Just let me say this, those who already have PowerPC chips will fine, but if you're planning on buying a new mac, choose an intel mac, the speed will be worth it in the long run.</p>

<p>Heh, I was actually considering buying one for my job (film editing work), only because of FCP though.</p>

<p>I just think its funny that Apple posts this website on how to run Windows on their hardware and then takes every opportunity they have to bash it and say how "old technology" it is.</p>

<p>
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Without windows, using a Mac -- you side step this all together. You side step viruses, you side step spyware, you get yourself in the clear. For an advanced user, hey that might be a non-issue. But for the majority it is. For the majority it would be nice to have an operating system where you don't have to install extra software in order to protect yourself.

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<p>There are viruses for Macs, and with more people switching over, you can only expect the number to increase.</p>

<p>OSX isn't as secure as you think. Hackers just don't want to waste their time developing something that isn't going to hit very many people.</p>

<p>Security is irrelevant.</p>

<p>Do you know what a trojan is?</p>

<p>If you think security is irrelevant and you've never gotten your computer broken into, consider yourself lucky.</p>

<p>No, I mean the fact that OSX is vulnerable is irrelevant. What matters is the chance you'll be infected and also how you can affect that chance.</p>

<p>What's wrong with old technology? Some of it works damn well. Floppies, for instance. Yeah, they can't hold your pirated copy of Photoshop, but you can fit a bunch of useful boot utilities--including OSs--onto them. Sure, they make bootable CDs, but they require a special flag, often a nostandard boot order, and can only burn once. CD-RWs are slow as hell, to those that would raise that objection.</p>

<p>I like how Apple plugs its super-modern EFI boot loader... Despite the fact they're appealing to users who don't know what a bIOS, POST, or driver is. They seem to simply like saying how awesome they are. If anything, it looks like EFI would be of more use to developers anyway.</p>

<p>Let the fools flock to Mac and shift the target of viruses (virii?) over thar.</p>

<p>nonstandard boot order? nobody who wants their machine to boot in under a minute will make floppies (or cd for that matter) boot b4 HDD</p>

<p>I dont know much about comps, but does this mean that I'll be able to play PC games on the mac?</p>

<p>CD-RW burn faster than you write to Floppy's you just don't notice since you fill up a floppy in 1.4MB while you usually burn more than a couple hundred on a cd.</p>

<p>Most computers can boot to USB .: the 'new' floppy disk - USB pen drives - have replaced the old. Now, if you buy a 1gb drive and stick knoppix on there, you'll have a secure Linux terminal that writes nothing to disk and leaves no trace wherever you go.</p>

<p>;)</p>

<p>Knoppix is good stuff, I boot it from CD though.</p>

<p>Well, advantage of running it from a usb drive is that you can write to it...if the hard disk is ntfs, you can't [reliably] save any data under knoppix.</p>

<p>Biaxident, yes, you'll be able to play PC games on macs that can boot xp.</p>

<p>if u wanna use xp, dont waste ur money on apple hardware</p>

<p>and its not guranteed it can run those games cuz its 1. u need to install ur own xp on a certain high end model of mac, and u need a certain lvl of proficiency at both hardware and software</p>

<p>and 2. it may not be able to run the game at decent speeds b/c the game prob messed up w/ the mac hardware drivers (or lack of drivers)</p>

<p>JinFX: Apparently you've never had HDD problems...</p>

<p>Also, keep in mind, most people buying a Mac and dual-booting XP aren't going to be playing Counter Strike: Source and Doom 3. They're more the Sims 2 market. They don't need the capability to exceed 200 fps in anything they play.</p>

<p>Generally, gaming on laptops is not too great in the first place. It has nothing to do with how good the hardware is in the laptop, its just not as good as having a desktop.</p>

<p>Screen size really isnt hte issue for me, it's the maximum resolution that the monitor can handle.</p>

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Biaxident, yes, you'll be able to play PC games on macs that can boot xp.

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<p>FINALLY! At least now I can get a macbook</p>