Mac or PC Laptop for Music Majors?

College Majors Music Major
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<p>MACs are more secure than PCs. However, the reason that there aren’t many viruses for MACs is that most virus writers are in it for the thrill of taking out major networks, companies and 10s of millions of computers. Since PCs vastly outnumber MACs, there is little “thrill factor” in writing MAC viruses for hackers.</p>

<p>Just recently, MAC introduced some new “super security” feature and a hacker who was tired about hearing how “secure” MACs were wrote a successful virus within 48 hours.</p>

<p>So, the !st Commandment for anyone owning a computer, either PC or MAC, is “Thou shalt have a good and constantly updated virus protection program.”</p>

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<p>Imperial - is there any difference in choosing an antivirus program for a Mac as opposed to a PC. I am using a free program - Avast - on my PC that I am very pleased with. I also use Spybot. Is there any reason not to use the same things on the Mac?</p>

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<p>Beethoven’s 10th, I have a question for you… If you say the mac has the intel processor that allows you to run on windows too, then why buy another PC for Gigastudio when you can run it on your mac?</p>

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<p>I suspect a macbook would work for a music major as well as a macbook pro, unless someone is doing recording technology up to the wazoo or heavy image or audio processing of a lot of tracks, I suspect a macbook would be fine. My son uses the macbook to do recording and editing some pretty heavy duty audio and video files and has been perfectly happy. I agree that the one thing is not to skimp on RAM, you don’t have to order it from Apple (they are expensive). I think the current macbook holds 4 gig (2 2 gig dimms), and it is really easy to replace and 4 gig of ram is not expensive these days at all. </p>

<p>The one downfall of the mac is the price, they are a lot more expensive then comparable PC laptops, which have better screens and faster processors then the mac do for a lot less money (however, school discounts can make Macs pretty cheap). Desktops even more so, I just picked up a 2.5 ghz quad core with 8 gig of memory and a 1 gig high def graphics card from HP for around 700 bucks. I also will add that my new machine has windows 7, and it is night and day better then vista, it is a decent machine.</p>

<p>In the end, the real answer is you will do well with either machine, they both have their plusses and minuses. Given the plethora of graphics cards, audio cards and the like available for PC’s, and generally getting more bang for the buck, the mac’s advantage with audio and video is no longer what it once was; The Mac os is still better then windows, even 7, it has a simpler approach to things and generally has better behaved applications, but it also is still something of a closed machine, so upgrades can be limited (depending on model, obviously). </p>

<p>Having used both platforms extensively in the end it comes down to personal choice, either platform would do what a music major needs, they both have advantages and disadvantages. </p>

<p>And yes, you can run windows applications on the mac, there is either bootcamp (that lets you boot the mac into windows mode, it is an either/or situation, plus you need a copies of windows) or parallels (the better choice IMO) that allows you to run windows as a window under the MAC OS and run Windows programs there, while still running mac programs. Programmers where I work do that (our main business product is pc based) and it seems to work fine for them, so if windows programs are a necessity parallels can give you that capability.</p>

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<p>My D has a Sony and her roomie an H-P at Eastman. They’re probably one of the only rooms in the entire dorm that’s all-PC. She likes that computer very much and sees no reason why she’d want an Apple. I am, of course, thrilled because she has a computer she likes and we didn’t get suckered into grossly overspending for a Mac.</p>

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<p>you can take music out of the equation. Macs period. And the prices have gotten incredibly competitive with the latest batch. Not that I ever minded paying a bit more to never read directions for ANYTHING and NEVER having to worry about viruses :)</p>

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<p>My D got the Macbook Pro through her school. She loves it and when she doesn’t have hers with her and has to use my PC now and then, she thanks me over and over again for her Mac. It seems that the Mac comes with things that are extras for the PC. I think it is really hard to compare a cheap PC to a Mac. The bottom line is that, when price is the main factor, the PC wins. I’m no computer expert, but most of the ones I know have given up on Windows. That doesn’t mean, of course, that they have a Mac.</p>

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<p>Like don9992’s D, my D at CIM has a PC and wouldn’t have a Mac if it was given to her- actually, her middle school did do that and she was so very glad to get rid of it (see youtube for the videos likening them to boat anchors!). She was so turned off by the quirkiness of the darned things that she has been firmly in the PC camp ever since.
Before classes began this fall, I spoke to the head of IT at CWRU and he told me to save the money as the only time she would need anything super-sophisticated might be in a composition class (something a VP major is not likely to take!) and the school would require them to use the machines in the computer lab for that anyway.
It’s really a matter of personal preference unless a school really does require a specific machine. Even the “deals” offered through colleges are not usually the lowest prices available on a particular computer, so check around. One specific brand (unless one is referring to Macs) is never necessary. The best time to find those terrific prices on laptops is Black Friday and during the month of August. Don’t overlook the idea of “upgrading” the machine they may have from high school. It’s easy and inexensive to add to the memory (look on line as it’s half the price of local stores, at least around here) and the longest part of the process is ordering the parts! For many of us, price is a big part of it and there is no way that I can justify laying out almost thirteen hundred dollars for a laptop.</p>

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<p>That’s why I’m typing away on my $400 Dell. I do wish it had a back lit keyboard though. I don’t have the patience to get used to using a Mac at this point. Even though they are more intuitive, I’ve become accustomed to counter-intuitive.</p>