<p>@ silence_kit
The parody of the cartoon is to tell people using Windows can be just as cool as using Mac. I can program very well but I use XP (and sometime Ubuntu, depends on what I do). I don’t like Mac and will not use Mac for any purposes. It is my personal opinion. But I absolutely agree with the parody that many people use Mac only because they want to be cool. It gets me paranoid when people are lining up in front of the Apple Store every year just to get another new iPhone. Well it’s their livings and I have to respect that.</p>
<p>so who’s worse, the apple fan that only buys a mac because they think it’s cool, or the windows user that thinks they’re cool by belittling the mac user’s preference?</p>
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<p>if you go strictly on hardware then sure macs are extremely overpriced, now look at your cloth, they are probably made of the same material as the cheap shirts you can get for probably $2 dollars, you are not only paying for the material but also the design on that shirt, same goes with macs, its software is great, fast searches, very few viruses, hotcorners, multitouch scrolling/window hiding, reliable software that doesn’t crash as often are just some of the things that i would pay for</p>
<p>i personally don’t have a macbook pro as i run all my hardware intensive programs on my self-built pc, but at $1000 for macbook+ipod touch (UCLA school discount, should be available in most schools in one form or another) i think its worth it, sure i can get the same hardware for like $500, but i would value the mac os and battery life enough to make me go mac any day (i had a dreadful 30 min batterylife on my hp laptop before)</p>
<p>@ kick53rv3
Right. A wise consumer would spend days to learn the pros and cons.</p>
<p>MBP are extremely solid computers, and well worth the premium, imo (especially if you get the student discount as well as the free iPod deal during the summer). If you shop right, you can get a good Apple computer for a decent price. Not dirt-cheap, but then again, Apple products aren’t dirt-cheap quality.</p>
<p>There are also so many little things that make the experience fantastic, like MagSafe, the great keyboard, good build quality, and the absolutely awesome multitouch trackpad. Seriously, I don’t know why other PC manufacturers don’t find it worthwhile to develop a good trackpad.</p>
<p>With regards to computer science/programming, I highly recommend some sort of *nix platform. OS X works, as does Linux (obviously). You’d be doing yourself a disservice if you only learned how to program on Windows. One advantage of getting a MBP is that you will be able to easily dual-boot with Windows (Linux, too, with some work), allowing you to get experience on multiple platforms. If you don’t want that hassle, VMs are a nifty solution.</p>
<p>Finally, let’s keep the stereotyping nonsense out of this thread. All kinds of people use Macs (same with Windows and Linux).</p>
<p>Since programs might not make nice with Macs. You should be aware of that and find out if your program uses any of those programs before buying one.</p>
<p>Its not stereotypes, its fact. Compare the hardware and the price. The difference is obvious</p>
<p>Sent from my Droid using CC App</p>
<p>See this post of mine (I use a MBP and am in CS):</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12510403-post4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12510403-post4.html</a></p>
<p>As a CS major, you ought to learn how to work and program in a Linux environment. Buy an Acer/Sony, save yourself some money, get a good processor for cheap and put Fedora or Ubuntu on it. You’ll have access to all the free software you’ll ever need for anything.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: you will spend lots of time figuring things out, but this is good because people who know how to do things through the terminal and use Linux tools and work in that environment are very highly sought-after. The extra time it takes for you to get acquainted with these things is worth it for the marketability. Also, you have different stages of involvement; if you want to get into the nitty gritty, go get Arch Linux and build everything from scratch. If you want a normal computer that runs like Windows but way less stupid, get Ubuntu. Then there’s everything in between.</p>