God, kids are superficial idiots. I like the mac, personally but not for style or brand name. I write iOS apps and the hardware is physically really well constructed.
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71% of College Students Prefer Macs Over PCs According to Jamf Survey
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I've been in the working world for close to 30 years now and worked for 5 different companies, and have never used a Mac professionally (except in one case where I was testing software on a Mac, but it wasn't my "work computer").
That being said, I have never owned anything BUT a Mac for home use, either for me or my family (or extended family whom I've advised). and I prefer it this way. I find Windows easier for work-related multitasking and keyboard shortcuts, but I find OSX easier for multimedia, writing, anything else typically not done for work (I honestly HATE using Excel on a Mac).
I will likely NEVER promote the idea of a PC in the home for my family - Macs are just easier to manage, especially when I'm the tech support rep. I've got a kid heading to college next year, and I will be getting her a new Mac for her to take with her.
One of the earlier posters questioned why wouldn't someone in my situation buy a 2-year-old Mac for the college-bound kid off eBay. I agree, except a)the butterfly keyboard issue and 2)she's going to have this Mac all through college and for several years after. It's worth it to go new. When she was 13 she got a 2-year-old Macbook air to use, and it's still going strong other than the fact that the battery is starting to fail this year. a 7-year-old Mac that's still going (fairly) strong, despite a teenager's abuse of it.
Macs last.
Who's to say that 40% that use Mac are doing so by choice? Just because "40% Use Mac" and "31% Use PC but prefer Mac" doesn't mean that 71% prefer Mac...
I agree with all those (I don’t use UNIX). I’ll educate the wife next time she complains
You make some valid points and I agree with most of them. However, many students cannot afford a new or even used Mac. They, or their parents could purchase a very useable and inexpensive PC alternative and enjoy most of Apple's primary ecosystem. Yes, Apple products will last longer but by the time a university student graduates, their choice of a new computer will be dictated by their profession and employment outlook.
I'm using a late 2013 MacBook Pro to type this and it still has another year or two of life. My 2015 27" iMac is still my workhorse, I retired a 2010 27" iMac two months ago, my 2007 iMac is in a closet but still works wonderfully though not securely, and I'm sure if I booted up my 2005 Power Mac G5dc it would work (liquid cooling may be a problem). Now I'm curious, will my old IBM PC boot using my MS Dos 2.1 floppy? I still have Word Star somewhere. lol
unlike Windows, the whole OS X experience is a joy to use. Yes advancement is lacking, but still I would take any OS X over any Windows. The whole system is stable and just works. All I can say is, Thank You Steve Jobs.
Or "Other", for that matter (I once had a job where one of my first tasks was to build my own FreeBSD workstation).
Utter madness was ponying up all the $$$ for the above fully soldered throwaway devices. Hope at least you got the Apple Care you'll inevitably need.
The only Mac I'm using right now is the company provided maxed out 2017 15" MBP which is a kernel panicking, bad keyboard-ridden, screen-temperature-fluctuating pain in the rear that's soon to be returned to our IT supplies for a replacement (this one being already the third in a row). I've sold my old iMac and 15" MacBook Pro on eBay and not looking back. Unless there's a serious change of heart, this will likely be my last Mac, and not because I cannot afford it. I could order their entire lineup fully maxed out, but it's just NOT WORTH IT.
May I also remind you this article is about students who most likely cannot afford past the base versions of the above devices (certainly not the iMac Pro), plus the legion of adaptors and peripherals just to get them to work out of the box, plus Apple Care and whatnot.
Personally, the last MBP I loved was the 17", the last MBP I enjoyed was the 2015" 15", never saw the point of a Mac mini and didn't upgrade my 27" iMac past 2012.
Is that a career path for a statistically significant portion of college students these days? Or would you agree that it's a bit niche?
Windows 10 has become infinitely better and has a lot to like. Don't dismiss Microsoft, they have an equalling compelling operating system and ecosystem. I always keep a couple of Windows machines handy to see what Microsoft is up to. Yes, an inexpensive PC notebook is not engineered like an Apple product but the inexpensive PC notebooks are 2 or 2.5 times less expensive than an equivalent Apple product.
I have three notebook PC's; the HP i3 8130U, a Lenovo Yoga 900 with a 6000 series cpu, and a Lenovo W540 Thinkpad workstation with a i7 4000 series cpu. Windows 10 works quickly and efficiently on all three. Have had no problems with any of them. They are all running the most current Windows build.
Most college students prefer Macs same with high school students prefer iPhones. There's a things in this age group that attracted to Apple products just like fashion. They don't prefer the Macs because of MacOS, MacBooks are undoubtedly the most beautiful laptops in the campus and people know how much that thing cost. And there's a big problem for this age group to be socially accepted or downplayed if kids don't have iPhones and MacBooks. I heard a lot of kids saying they wish they have iPhone just to be in Instagram all day or MacBook Pro just to browse the web and type their notes.
This is evident on my Computer Science degree it’s about a 45/53/2 split between those who use macOS, Windows and Linux. I personally run all 3 but only use Mac unless I require visual studio or something on Linux but then it’s just BootCamp or Parallels.
However in the Film/Theatre department it’s a much greater percentage who have macs closer to 80/20 as all their software used is macOS based so windows users are limited
However in the Film/Theatre department it’s a much greater percentage who have macs closer to 80/20 as all their software used is macOS based so windows users are limited
What's another $4000 on top of $100,000 college debt? Why not get the best?
I'm guessing the other 29% are working hard to get through college with as little debt as possible and therefore a nice $1K Windows laptop does the job nicely.
I'm guessing the other 29% are working hard to get through college with as little debt as possible and therefore a nice $1K Windows laptop does the job nicely.
Dear College students:
Use the computer that best suits you and don’t worry about a potential job that may or may not require you to switch systems down the road.
A lot of software is cross platform and functionality is essentially the same on both operating systems. Switching to Windows (or to Mac from Windows) shouldn’t require more than a 45 minute tutorial and a day or so setting up the computer to your preferences.
Really? It's been the opposite for me when I was in school. The majority of CS students used Windows machines, then some type of Linux distro, and a very small percentage used Macs. I used a MBP in school mainly because I was tired of buying new Inspirons every other year, just had a Windows virtual environment whenever I needed to do something when I wasn't home.
I haven't touched my MBP in years since graduating though. Work is done on my desktop and just browsing stuff online is done on my phone or iPad
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
Agreed, but I'm not advocating that Apple turn the MacOS into touchscreen.
Apple, in addition to macOS and associated hardware, should make an iOS 2-in-1 or laptop with additional desktop-like features.
The Pro line should not be ultrabooks like every Mac laptop is.
My Dream Portables (not gonna happen, but still):
The Pro line: The pre-2016 Retina MBP (with socketed RAM and SSDs), upgraded to 2019 specs (no dumb TouchBar), add TB3 without removing anything else. 13-15-17 inches.
The consumer line: All current iPads with USB-C instead of Lightning, Thin as MacBook 1-2 port iBooks, iBook 2-in-1
Only job I had where I even saw a Mac was during an internship when I was still in school. Ever since then, never came across a business that uses them. All Windows, RHEL, or Solaris
Not always. I remember when Apple Computer, Inc. in the 1980's were advertising themselves as the alternative to big "bad" corporate IBM. They marketed to schools and to creative types.
I’m an IT specialist and work for a big company, I use a Mac as my main machine, as do other friends who have the same job. And yes my daily work if Active Directory, RDP, Windows support