<p>hmm, are you sure? I bought my PowerBook G4 last April with my acceptance letter. My mom(she's a teacher) bought an eMac with her school ID.</p>
<p>it's probably just an error of the store, b/c most of the people I've talked to and have talked to on mac-forums.com(yes i'm a Mac fanatic,lol) have purchased Macs at the Apple retail stores w/ their student/educator IDs/acceptance letters.</p>
<p>a larger consideration stands at this: spyware, malware, virii, and just crap in general increases year to year almost exponentially. It also 90% of the time only affects PCs. Having a mac means being able to ignore every symantec ad, every Mcaffe ad, all your schools XP service updates, etc. The relief of never having to worry about that sort of stuff justifies the cost of a mac by itself. And whereas identity theft is becoming one of the most lucrative businesses today, how can one afford not to get a mac? How many articles on the problems of computers, hackers, etc start with the line "I got a mac last year" ? I have been using macs all my life and I plan on getting a laptop when I go to colby next year. The mac is the maybach of computers, end of discussion.</p>
<p>All the great things about the Macs have already been stated, and are generally very well-known.</p>
<p>The bad things about the "Macintosh" (it's actually Apple), though, are rather muddled by moronic PC-users (Apple sucks because it's in the minority) and equally moronic Apple freaks (Apple rox b/c they never crash and since OSX gets no spyware it's obviously more stable and better).</p>
<p>Here's my view. If you're going for engineering, you will just about have to get a PC. This is because 90% of software is not available for the stubbornly non-x86 hardware that the Apples tout. If you're going for anything else, it doesn't really matter what you get.</p>
<p>Apples are good for video editing. Well, low-end video editing. Hihg-end PCs have actually passed high-end Apples again in productivity for video-editing, but only for real professionals, and mission-critical (you know, important government) things. This isn't to say a user-end Apple is worse than a user-end PC, not at all. Apple's hardware tends to be exclusively well-made (downside to this is you don't actually get to choose the hardware that goes into your computer, but to most end-users, they couldn't care less) and really don't break as often as some shoddy PC companies do. Case in point: Dell laptops suck.</p>
<p>If you're money-strapped, please do not get an Apple. Get a Dell PC.</p>
<p>If you don't care about money, get an Apple by all means. Just be aware that potentially you're getting about 1.5 times less performace per dollar than you would with a PC. But also keep in mind that Apple hardware and software, while being horrendously expensive, is also much more reliable. Better? Debatable.</p>
<p>Apple is most definitly not the Ferrari's of computers. Their hardware is not "faster" than PC hardware by any means. In fact the only time when the G5 cpu might have been faster than a PC CPU is just when the G5 came out. Then Intel and AMD zoomed past them, as always. If you're looking for pure, unadulterated performance, look no further than the high-end $3,000 PCs of today. If you're looking for comparatively rock-hard reliability at a premium, go for the Apple.</p>
<p>P.S. The real Ferraris of Desktop computers are Falcon Northwests. <a href="http://www.falcon-nw.com%5B/url%5D">www.falcon-nw.com</a> Paint job and everything costs a hell of a lot. But they're worth it, if money is no object.</p>
<p>Hmmm, every IBook I've ever used had no card in it...I was under the impression the signal was built into the screen.</p>
<p>And so far it has been compatible with the many networks I've tried to use it on, so that's alright with me.</p>
<p>It's also important to note that most schools have Mac Support and a Mac compatible environment. They are very popular with college students and I also believe that Harvard has a very large selection of macs in their computer labs. Interesting fact, I thought.</p>
<p>in the iBook on the older models the card is under the keyboad and easily accessable. in the new ones it takes a bit more digging. On the powerbooks the card is in the machine (i think under the KB) and the antennea are on the sides of the screen</p>
<p>ragnarok- thats some kewl stuff. im really digging the carrying case, but look at the price...Whoa its really through the roof</p>
<p>Prettiness:
Mac: Apple makes them look pretty.
PC: build your own, hotter and sleeker and toss in LED lights too. </p>
<p>Security:
Mac: Nobody gives you viruses or hacks you because you're the minority, not worth attacking.
PC: Go use Linux or just pay attention to protecting yourself.</p>
<p>Ease of Use:
Mac: Deliberately designed to be User-friendly. (ie, it has one button on the mouse)
PC: I prefer two buttons.</p>
<p>Software:
Mac: Not much out there.
PC: Tons of stuff out there, easily available, highly compatible, you can play all the games you want because pretty much all the good games were made for PC.</p>
<p>Stability:
Mac: Better.
PC: not so. But it all really depends on the operating system, really. If we're assuming we're using Windows XP... I've never had XP crash on me.</p>
<p>Now I might just be speculating here, but...
because PCs are not monopolized by a single manufacturer, there will be more competition (AMD vs Intel, nVidia vs ATI, etc), thus more innovation, better quality, lower costs.</p>
<p>you bring up a good point about the competition</p>
<p>i personally prefer the pc mouse. two buttons, two functions (and if you have the side buttons for back and forward, that's even better), and i just love the scroll wheel. best thing ever</p>
<p>If you get a mac, your run virtually ZERO CHANCE of getting a virus. My mac- has never gotten a virus, nor did the two i had before that, neither have any of my dads, nor my friends. also, if you make movies at all, final cut is the best thing ever. they're also coming out with a new productivity suite called iWork to replace the now outdated appleworks. And yes, macs are more money, but in the long term, you'll probably spend more money maintaining a pc than you would buying a mac outright.</p>
<p>i really cant detach from my mouse, does anyone know a way where you can reconfigure a mac to interface with a pc mouse?</p>
<p>Ghost, I don't think there are Mac drivers for a PC mouse. We're a "bi-lingual" household with respect to PC's and switching back and forth between machines has never been a problem.</p>
<p>For many applications, there's more than enough software out there.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree... the PC mouse is really a HUGE advantage over the Mac mouse in my opinion.</p>
<p>It allows for much more efficient and natural interaction with the computer.
My mouse has four buttons--the two top ones, (with scroll wheel, an INCREDIBLY useful part of the mouse that works very well for scrolling down pages rather than tapping a clumsy up/down key) and two on the thumb side that allow me to go backwards and forwards on the internet browser. This saves the trouble of clicking the Forward or Backward buttons on the browser itself. Anything that saves clicking/buttonpushing = good. </p>
<p>To do what PCs do with a single rightclick, on a Mac you must hold down a button or whatever or go through other agony.</p>
<p>The PC lets your entire right hand be completely utilized to best interface with the computer. The Mac just uses your index finger. Wasteful.</p>
<p>Apples are a thousand times better than Windows. I can guarantee you once you switch, you'll never want to go back to Windows. Now that I own a Powerbook, I cringe at the thought of having to use a Windows. Best oxymoron ever: Microsoft Works!!!</p>
<p>Linux is better than both, if you want to study computers</p>
<p>so a pc mouse cannot be put to use on a mac... i take it?</p>
<p>ppl keep bringing up that apples dont get viruses. besides this fact, what other advantages does the mac have over windows? thomaschou posted a nice issue comparison, that however still does not reveal the pros to a mac. im an open person, but i have a deep rooted loyalty (more like habit or familiarity) to windows. </p>
<p>persuade me</p>
<p>And what is this with the Safari Browser? What makes that so much better than IE?</p>
<p>You can buy a two button mouse for a mac, you know.</p>
<p>I use a PC because for some things I have to. Given a choice, for many things I prefer the Mac. Apple support beats anything offered by any brand of PC and issues of vulnerability aside, I find my Mac's have been far more stable than the corresponding PC's. (We've been buying alternating machines for, like, 20 years.) </p>
<p>And there's no getting around the fact that there's a lot more consistency of interface and often an easier, more intuitive interface on the Mac...I <em>never</em> have to type a command line, twiddle with a .dll or any such nonsense.</p>
<p>Side note to an earlier comment: every professional film/video editor I know works on a Mac and I live in the hotbed of said business.</p>
<p>-if you don't like the one button mouse on a Mac, plug in a two buttoned mouse. They are compatible with Macs, and many people do it. I prefer the one buttoned mouse, because it does what you need to do 80% of the time. The other 20% you can press command-click(omg, so hard), or hold down the mouse button. However, it would be nice if Apple would introduce a two buttoned mouse in addition to the traditional one.
-There is PLENTY of software out there for Apple computers. In addition to software written for all versions of OS 9 and OS X, some software that is written for PCs can work on the Mac(in certain cases). Also, if there's a program that you absolutely need and is ONLY available for Windows and doesn't have ANY Mac equivalent, then you can get Virtual PC 7. Although it has slowdown in most cases(you'll need more than 256 MB RAM to get it to run smoothly.), it does what it needs to do. In most cases, you WON'T need Virtual PC.
-All Apple laptops come with an Airport Extreme wireless card.
-If you are pressed for money, you can get the $999 iBook G4. This is without the educational discount that all of us receive by being college students.
-If you get an iBook G4 or iMac G5, it comes with most of the software that you need to get through college. Sure, many of us will want more, but it comes with the majority of what you need. iPhoto, iChat, iMovie, Garageband, AppleWorks, iTunes, Safari, Quicktime, DVDPlayer, etc. With the upcoming release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, there will be many more such programs.<br>
-Safari renders pages faster than Internet Explorer. However, it might not load some pages correctly, in the same way that IE doesn't load every page. thus, you can use both interchangeably. Safari also has tabbed browsing, which is a major plus, and saves space on your screen.
-The protected memory of OS X is a great plus. If you have Safari, Word, iChat, and iTunes open, each occupies its own "section" of memory. If Word is idle or crashes, ONLY Word crashes. The entire operating system does NOT crash. You could continue using Safari or iChat without any slowdown. You can then Force Quit Word and move on.
-Performance is comparable if not better than PCs. Contrary to popular opinion, Ghz/Mhz(processor speed) is not the ONLY way to measure performance. Firstly, Apple computers and Windows based computer have different types of processor architecture. The PowerPC(the Apple chip) and the Intel/AMD/etc. chips use different architectures. For example, the PowerPC uses RISC(Reduced Instruction Set Computer) is seen as more efficient per Mhz. The Intel chip uses CISC(Complex Instruction Set Computer), and is seen as having higher processor speeds, but not as efficient. Therefore, there is much more going on in relation to performance than just that number before the Ghz. A 2.5Ghz PowerPC G5 computer cannot be compared outright to a 3Ghz Pentium 4 or whatever.</p>