<p>So i still haven't bought myself my laptop for college and i was just wondering if maybe students already in UCI could give me some insight which will help me choose whether to get a PC or Mac. Things like how big of an issue are viruses on campus for a PC? Macs and incompatible programs: does that become an issue and how well does boot camp work? Were there any other programs like boot camp that worked just as well or better for the compatibility issue? For bio sci majors, based on the types of laptops you and people you know have/had, which one did you feel was much more convenient for the classes you were taking and the programs you needed? Any insight or tips you can give would be awesome. Thank you.</p>
<p>I’m personally very partial to PC’s. Our school recently invested in a bunch of new Macs, laptops, desktops, all kinds of things, but I still am a big fan of HP and Dell computers.</p>
<p>pcs for their compatibility.</p>
<p>teachers might ask for you to have certain programs.</p>
<p>Aren’t macs overpriced? And I think you would only purchase macs when you need them for design or something of that sort.</p>
<p>I use a mac and I love it. Every program I have needed so far has been available for mac/pc except 1 which we only needed to use once. I just used Fusion and Bootcamp when I had to run that program.</p>
<p>I’ve had my Mac for about a year and I love it too. It makes everything so super easy. Installation, etc. is just too easy. It takes a few days or a week (depending on how well you adapt to things) to get used to some of the differences (like the close button being on the left side, etc.) but once you’re used to it, you start to become more comfortable with your Mac even more than a PC! I remember after coming home from the dorms I started using commands on my PC that only worked on my Mac 
The applications you can download for the Mac are endless and amazing.</p>
<p>The only issue I had was playing games. The mac is not game friendly. You <em>can</em> download VMware Fusion and Bootcamp so that you van virtually have the best of both worlds but I wouldn’t recommend a Mac if you’re a gamer. Other than that, for educational purposes, you can pretty much use any Windows program with your Mac if you use Bootcamp (and if you use Fusion with Bootcamp, you can open up that Windows program <em>inside</em> your Mac partition). </p>
<p>It can be pricey, but I think it’s worth it. Plus, you can get the school deal with a free iPod (or iTouch) anyways can’t you? If that’s still an issue, just buy the original white MacBook instead of the new metallic ones. The price is cut down to $800 I believe and you can still get the deal with a free iPod.</p>
<p>Anyway, hope I helped and good luck in deciding!</p>
<p>I play Crysis on my mac using bootcamp and it runs better than my pc. Bootcamp allows windows to run very very smoothly. Fusion is not so smooth but more convenient. I use both depending on the situation.</p>
<p>pc. less compatibility issues, more widespread tech support available, and of course for your average comp user: much easier to use. as for viruses u dont have to worry about them unless you know ur going to be doing some illegitimate things (hacked games, etc)</p>
<p>other than that i really can’t say anything about which would be better in the academic context</p>
<p>once u go mac, u can’t go back!! haha. i used to be super PC savvy ever since the age of 13. but for my 22nd bday i decided to buy myself a 13 inch macbook pro. right now u can get the deal w/ a free ipod touch plus $100 off for being a student. it’s a pretty sweet deal. i seriously love using macs now and i dont think i can go back to a pc.</p>
<p>Oh I forgot, if you’re going to be dorming everyone with Windows <em>has</em> to download this thing called Cisco Clean Access (check it out: [Cisco</a> Clean Access](<a href=“http://resnet.uci.edu/cca.asp]Cisco”>http://resnet.uci.edu/cca.asp)) to use the internet on campus, and it was always a pain for a lot of my friends. Some of my friends couldn’t even use the internet through the ethernet cord after a quarter because of Cisco issues and lucked out by getting it to work only through wireless (we had a few dormmates who brought in wireless routers). If you use a Mac (like I did) however, you do not have to download Cisco and deal with any of that, since I guess the Mac is much less prone to viruses and spreading them.</p>
<p>90% of the computers that I saw in campus were PCs, that includes the computers that control projection screens in multiple classrooms and both the Langson and Science libraries (though I think saw a few Macs there). The Information and Computer Science labs also used Windows PC. </p>
<p>The only Macs in campus I saw were that of professors, students, and public computers at the Student Center. The UCI Bookstore prominently displays their Macs, desktop and laptop, for sale.</p>