Mac vs PC for the linguist?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I know there are a ton of threads on mac vs pc but I don't think I have seen this one (I asked on different boards though))</p>

<p>I currently own a PC and I love my windows...wel, no actually I hate it but for now I have to deal with it. I was thinking that maybe for grad school I would treat myself to a semi-maxed out powerbook (15 or 17....more likely 17 because i prefer a big screen) or an imac G5.</p>

<p>I would be going into linguistics which means I would have to deal with writing foreign characters (mostly for European Languages...likely not Cyrillic of Chinese/Japanese, etc characters but just normal letters with accents). It is soooooooooooooooooooooo annoying typing these stupid things on my pc...I have to do these horrid alt + 3 or 4 digit number combos. I know I can change my keyboard but...I like my AMerican keyboard and I don't wanna memorize 10 different layouts!</p>

<p>My professor told me tha tin the past, most linguists used Macs because it was easier to deal with foreign characters, but now, he said, the platform is of little importance.........I dunno. </p>

<p>WHich one is best for dealing with linguistic data (phonetics, etc)? Using translation software? Of course, foreign characters......?</p>

<p>Man I just want a Mac but they are uber expensive (no, i don't want a mini....I either want a Pbook or an imac G5).</p>

2

<p>I had to type foreign characters too (cyrillic, made up ones). My mac handles it pretty well. I don't know about PCs. I do know this program is standard on any mac that you'd be willing to buy. Very easy to use.</p>

3

<p>With a mac its just option + something for those special characters you want. For example, </p>

4

<p>macs are GREAT as far as language capabilities go. On screen keyboard can display all the characters in any font set both upper and lower case. You can select from tons of languages to be in the menu. Switching is as easy as command+spacebar.</p>

5

<p>macs are better computers, damnit... as soon as all you engineering students and business majors figure that out, the world will be a much better place.</p>

6

<p>Tell that to the people who write the business software (and to a lesser extent, the engineering software)</p>

<p>Business users use whatever they are given and they are given whatever works right with ALL of their required software.</p>