<p>I need a laptop.
I've had a PC my entire life. I'm scared of Windows 7.
I've always heard Macs are superior.</p>
<p>Tell me what I should buy.</p>
<p>I can see where this thread is going…</p>
<p>But anyways, 1. Windows 7 isn’t bad. </p>
<ol>
<li>I am pro-Mac.</li>
</ol>
<p>Personally, I’m not a big fan of Macs. But then again the only ones I’ve used are the crappy ancient cheap ones at my school. So I can’t really speak for them ;;</p>
<p>Anyway, Windows 7 isn’t that bad. At first it’s pretty confusing (especially when you start to use Word 2007) but I think you get used to it after a while. Some of the features definitely make life easier. (:</p>
<p>All I know is that for UCI… you need Windows to do the housing app - so you’d need that to apply for second year housing as well. However, you could always borrow some friend’s windows laptop and just work from there so I don’t think that should be the only reason to get a Windows laptop.</p>
<p>Just know that generally… Macs are more expensive. I decided on getting a Windows 7 laptop because I just can’t afford that much for a Mac… and because I can’t play my games on one either. :b</p>
<p>Whoa wait a second. haha. You do <em>not</em> need windows to do the housing application for UCI. I’m not sure what you mean by that, but I applied for housing both as a freshman and then for second year and I had a Macbook. </p>
<p>If you’re talking about setting up that mandatory Cisco Clean Access program ([Cisco</a> Clean Access](<a href=“http://resnet.uci.edu/cca.asp]Cisco”>http://resnet.uci.edu/cca.asp)), as a Mac user you do not have to download or set that up since we obviously do not have a Windows system 
So yeah, it’s actually easier having a Macbook when dealing with Cisco because we don’t have to deal with it at all, and that’s definitely a plus but similarly it certainly shouldn’t be the only reason why you would want to get a Mac :)</p>
<p>If you’re willing to pay for a Macbook then just go test it out at an apple store to see for yourself. i’ve used a PC my whole life and i’ve only had troubles the few times i’ve tried to use a mac :(. you’ll be learning a new OS no matter what, unless you just choose to get some other version of windows. so idk, there’s pros and cons with both. don’t macs have ridiculously long battery life? that might come in handy if you’re going to be bringing your laptop to class. and i don’t think it’s valid to say “macs are superior” because there’s a whole range of PC laptops and it just depends on the person / your uses.</p>
<p>Personally I feel that when paying for a Mac, you are paying for the “trendiness” of it. I’ve never owned a Mac so I can’t speak from personal experience.</p>
<p>PoorCookie :: Oh, that’s interesting. I didn’t know that… I’ve never tried housing on a Mac but I do know that the e-mail I got just a few weeks ago states that I must have “access to a Windows-based PC” … I’ve also heard that others have had trouble when trying to do housing using a Mac. My bad though if it isn’t true. |:</p>
<p>Sure if you are trendy, and want to look “cool” go for the mac… plus you get to learn a new OS, something to add on your resume! </p>
<p>But honestly, you can get a PC with the same specs for a fraction of the price of Macs.</p>
<p>I always thought people considered windows 7 a PLUS when getting a PC… but yeah</p>
<p>You really don’t need to be scared of Windows 7. There some new features and it might look different at first, but it’ll operate just like any other Windows compute you’ve used before. Getting a Mac on the other hand you’d have to learn a whole new OS (unless you have had previous experience with a Mac, then maybe you are already familiar with the Mac OS).</p>
<p>And just to reemphasize what everyone else has been saying: You can get a PC with the same specs as a Mac for a whole lot less money. And also with a Windows you won’t run into a lot of incompatibility issues that could come up.</p>
<p>PC hands down. Windows 7 isn’t that confusing.</p>
<p>Get a Mac. They’re well designed, powerful, durable, and simple to use. I’ve had a MacBook Pro for 3 years now, and I absolutely love it. I’m getting a 17’’ MacBook Pro on Friday, and I am super excited. </p>
<p>I have a computer with Windows 7, and Mac OS X is simply a better operating system. It is faster on the same hardware, and is much simpler to use for people who do not know a lot about computers. Another good thing about having a Mac is the support that you can get at Apple Stores. If you have an HP or a Dell and something goes wrong, you need to pack it up in a box (often at your own expense), ship it off to their repair center, wait while they fix it, then wait while they ship it back to you. If you own a Mac, you can just bring it to your local Apple Store, where they will fix it within 5 or so days.</p>
<p>Good luck running Pro-E, Solidworks, Catia, or any other engineering programs for that matter smoothly on a Mac. </p>
<p>Speaking from personal experience though, and having worked in the IT field for a number of years, MAC’s are great (when they’re working) for people who don’t need extreme computing power or want to do some photoshop/video editing. </p>
<p>I’m a bit biased towards PC’s, but mainly because I personally need the additional power for some engineering applications and the more modular design means easily interchangeable parts. Really though, it comes down to what you’ll be using it for, and how deep your pockets are. I wouldn’t mind a mac as a word processing/internet surfing computer.</p>
<p>Oh, right! It’s noteworthy to mention that some programs are just not that compatible with a Mac. Don’t know much about the engineers, but as a bio major or chem major you do have to install Spartan for general chem, and it’s pretty much an evil program, no matter what operating system you have. However, instructions for lab using Spartan were written for the PC and not the Mac, so that was one huge disadvantage. I always just worked with a friend who had a PC instead, and after two quarters it was all OVER and I never had to worry about any programs again :)</p>
<p>Games are still doable, although obviously most games are still only made for the PC. </p>
<p>If all else fails you can use a program such as Bootcamp or VMware Fusion and such to run Windows programs on the Mac. It may or may not run a little slower, depending on the program.</p>
<p>Besides the really clean simplicity of the MacBook, the other thing I think I adore about Macs is the unbelievable amount of Applications you can download and use! There is just about an application for everything I can think of. If you want to do something, just search for it and I guarantee there’s an application for it Super duper cool. I think I spent my first few weeks when I first got a Mac and I just downloaded a million cool apps. haha.</p>
<p>Oh, and I don’t know about other laptops, but my original white MacBook (now considered “old” with all the new models out 
) can run for 5-6 hours if I put the backlight on super low and do nothing but websurf or type in a word document. Pretty nice, especially when you’ve got a 3 hr night class to sit through, or gotta sit somewhere where there are no outlets for your charger.</p>
<p>I’m going to be a psych major…I don’t think I’ll need any programs, right?
I don’t do games really. I’m just tired of viruses and I want a worry-free computer that runs fast. Mac it is!</p>
<p>Well really, what websites are you going on that are contributing viruses to your computer? Or what are you downloading that is contributing viruses to your computer?</p>
<p>If you’re safe with your PC and have a decent antivirus program (I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials), you really don’t need to worry about viruses, and the like.</p>
<p>So save yourself some money and get a really nice PC and enjoy college!</p>
<p>Yeah, I doubt you’ll have any problems with programs. If one of your reasons is a worry-free and virus-free laptop I think the Mac is a pretty good fit for you. </p>
<p>I like telling stories, so here’s my story! 
I have an anti-virus program on my Windows desktop at home. I uninstalled it so I could reinstall it again, but the thing is I never remembered to reinstall it. So I actually went a month without any virus protection and what do you know? My PC contracted a virus the one day of the month that I used my desktop more frequently than usual. (I hadn’t used it for most of the month because I mostly use my MacBook now.) Haha, yeah it was great. I didn’t even try downloading anything; our guess was that I probably stumbled upon a website that used javascript or something and started installing some stuff on my computer without me knowing it. It was pretty clever too, and it kept telling me I didn’t have an anti-virus program and that I should let them run a scan. Despite my attempts to not click anything and uninstall it, it pretty much shut down any access to my control panel, and system restore didn’t work, so we had to reformat everything. </p>
<p>ANYWAY, long story short, I never encounter anything like that on my MacBook. There just aren’t enough people using MacBooks for hackers to actually care about wrecking havoc for us.</p>
<p>i bet someone has just been working on the ultimate mac virus…
Macs have their problems too. I’ve heard of people actually complaining about their Macs and how they feel like it’s about to die on them. Idk.</p>
<p>Well, in the time that someone creates that ultimate Mac virus, there will be thousands(?) of new viruses for Windows, so that argument really doesn’t work :p</p>
<p>I got my lappy summer of 2008 and my boyfriend dropped it once. It acted a little funny at first (which is a “duh” kind of thing because it was DROPPED haha) but after that it’s been running as if I just bought it. No problems here :)</p>
<p>If you can afford a mac, go for it. Otherwise go for a PC if you don’t wanna drop >$1000 on a laptop. Programs for PC can always be run on Boot Camp on a Mac anyways.</p>
<p>Mac all the way.</p>