College Bound

[HuskyDomains]

Hello~

I want to start this off by saying that I'm the new jack around here.. I really don't have a great deal of knowledge about Macs or Panther.. However I've been using Microsoft products since I was first introduced to computing. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable.. I've run Linux a few times, but running that at school isnt really an option. My question here is.. Would I be better off running a high end desktop replacement windows based laptop.. Or a Powerbook G4 1.5 GHZ with 1 GB ram... I know the answers may tend to be a little biased, however I'm looking for opinions. I just question whether the Mac will be powerful enough.. I don't play games. I would use it for web surfing, web development (photoshop,flash etc) and just everyday tasks (Word processing etc)... I could use my $200.00 student discount... I will be attending the University of Connecticut next year, starting in late august so waiting for a laptop really isnt a question...

Thanks
Huskydomains

 

[saabmp3]

You really need to tell us the major your working on. I'm an engineer and I personally like the mac for thw work I'm doing but others hate using them. If you've never touched one, they might not be right for you in college when all you need to do is get th ework done, not worry about learning a new computer.

BEN

 

[MacFan26]

I'd of course go with the PowerBook. Laptops are awesome for college. Just make sure your major isn't going to depend on Windows for some reason. Especially since you're not a big gamer, a PowerBook would be great for handling all your everday tasks. And web development etc. is always more fun on a Mac

 

[HuskyDomains]

I'm majoring in Marketing.... With a minor in Marketing and Technology which focuses on E-Commerce etc

 

[nesbitt_a]

My college experience

Hi there,

Let me start by saying that I went through the exact same experience when I was moving from high school to university. I was looking at both a high end IBM thinkpad on which I was planning on dualbooting a linux installation and windows xp professional. On the otherhand I was so taken by Apple hardware, their software and the whole mac community. I was looking at their (at the time top of the range) 1.25ghz superdrive 15" alu-powerbook.

How I solved my problem was by emailing my course organisers at my university (Edinburgh) and asking them directly "What is better for my course, windows or mac?". Because I'm studying computer science -- all our work is based on linux machines, and thus all the software we use is unix based. With that in mind - they strongly suggested any laptop on which I could run unix stuff - so that I could run their software, and could work in similar environments in the labs and in my dorm. I looked into the IBM thinkpads and was set on buying one of the x-series, and installing suse 9 professional on there. I then took the time to look further into the powerbooks and the mac community - I was taken straight away. I learned so much just by hanging out in mac forums for a few weeks - and decided to take the plunge and switch myself. I've never looked back.

The only advice I could give you is to contact the folks at your university and ask them outright, "will I survive with a powerbook?". You could even suggest that they get an apple user off your course to contact you - speak to them and find out what difficulties they've had by running Mac OS.


Good luck - and keep us posted!

 

[Steven1621]

i think my PB is very good at daily computing tasks. i would, though, like a little more zip for stuff like Flash and Photoshop etc, which i way i will be uping my RAM to a gig soon. as a whole, i think the speed is enough for your purposes.

also, good luck at uconn. it is a great school. i spent last summer there doing chem research.