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Evaluate the legitimacy of this statement.

R

r3dhawk

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 22, 2010
35
0
I was having a conversation with a family member about purchasing a Macbook Pro for college. I have been researching mac computers since February and feel like i know a lot of information about these computers. When i told them that i wanted to get a macbook pro for college, he responded "yeah but they dont come with all the software for college that pc's do."

is this statement crazy???
 
simply an uneducated response thats all. You can do whatever u need to for college.

Things have changed in the last 30 years ;)
 
Why does it have to be crazy? It's just uninformed and kind of ignorant, as many Windows PCs come with almost no productivity software, whereas Macs have at least iLife.

But ask again, what software is the one made for college?
 
Yes, it's crazy.

Most PCs don't come with "all the software for college." You buy a computer and you end up having to buy and install the software you need. Sometimes the software will be bundled, but at extra cost, so you're basically just bundling the software and PC into a single, more-expensive purchase. And sometimes they screw you with "MS works," which is basically a useless knock-off that isn't compatible with MS Office.

Can it RUN the software you need for college? Yes. Macs can run MS Office, Adobe Creative Suite, and nearly everything else you would need in college. Most Computer Science faculty and staff even use Macs for their work.

The only time there MIGHT be software that is PC only is in Business Administration and possibly some medical fields. Even then, you can Bootcamp into Windows and run the software just fine.

So yeah, it's an absurd, invalid statement.
 
FALSE

PCs come with a whole bunch of garbage, like:
•60 day trial of Microsoft Office -or- microsoft works (bleh)
•90 day subscription to norton or some other bloated antivirus crap
•a bunch of links to websites nobody in their right mind would visit
•manufacturer customized utilities that make your machine do wacky and unpredictable things

The only thing I can think of that would be essential without knowing anything about the major or the school itself would be the standard suite of software applications. iWork (mac) and office (mac/pc) don't typically come as full versions on any machines.
 
Think of it this way: you can spend on a spec'ed-out PC now and in two years when it starts to really bog down you'll HAVE to get a new one. Or, you could get a Mac and it should last you throughout your undergrad college stay, possibly longer. All while running all the stuff that your school will most likely need you to run.

The adoption rates of Macs in colleges are VERY high, for a good reason. And college staff and faculty are going Mac in droves, too.

Check the IT department webpage for the college that you're going to. They'll most likely have a section on Mac support.
 
spinnerlys said:
Why does it have to be crazy? It's just uninformed and kind of ignorant, as many Windows PCs come with almost no productivity software, whereas Macs have at least iLife.

But ask again, what software is the one made for college?
Click to expand...

iLife is hardly productivity software.

Tell your parents that you'll put them into a stinky pensioners' home if they don't get you a MacBook Pro with some cash put aside for a copy of Windows 7 just in case. Tell them that you might start seeing alcoholic prostitutes, unless they recognise that you are worth a Mac.
 
spinnerlys said:
But I partly agree, iWork would be better for college, from a "productive" point of view.
Click to expand...

If you're going to be sharing files with other students and turning in assignments electronically, then I'd have to say you really need MS Office. I use iWork and it's really great for all of the stuff I do on my own, especially when sending out the finished products to others in PDF, but it really falls down when the files have to be interoperable with windows users who also have to edit them.

Yeah, basic stuff can be exported to Office formats, but complex tables and art will not transfer well. For all of the stuff that others have to edit with me, I use Office 2008 for Mac. I don't like it, but it stops all the complaints.

Of course if you KNOW most or all the people you work with have Macs and likely have iWork, then you're fine.
 
spinnerlys said:
That depends on what your goals are and where your priority lies.

But I partly agree, iWork would be better for college, from a "productive" point of view.
Click to expand...

What college are you going to? Our university sells Office for Mac for like $10 since they have a campus agreement. I would bet that most of our university uses macs. We have an ITS technology center for buying machines and the only machines they have on display are macs. Oh, I goto the University of Iowa if that helps...

I am totally a fan boy, this is my first mac, and I am an Nth year graduate student but it has made my life unbelievably easier.
 
I will be a freshman at Southeast Missouri State

its not that i NEED a MBP for my major, its just that i have worked very hard through HS to earn a substantial scholarship so i want to reward myself for my hardwork. I have also had a 20+ hr/week job for the past three years. I can definately afford one.

the only thing is that my dad doesnt think Macs are good for college (i know i know... :/) so im trying to convince him other wise
 
dcurtis said:
What college are you going to? Our university sells Office for Mac for like $10 since they have a campus agreement. I would bet that most of our university uses macs. We have an ITS technology center for buying machines and the only machines they have on display are macs. Oh, I goto the University of Iowa if that helps...

I am totally a fan boy, this is my first mac, and I am an Nth year graduate student but it has made my life unbelievably easier.
Click to expand...

I went to college in the early 2000s, so iWork wasn't much of an option then*. I had to use MS Office, which wasn't as bad in the 2004 edition as the 2008 edition, when I decided to switch to iWork for my office documents, which aren't that many, as I work in the video editing business, so not much to write about unless lists and such.


* I also just switched to Mac OS X in 9/2004.

Or did you mean the OP with the question? It is more likely I suppose.
 
scaredpoet said:
If you're going to be sharing files with other students and turning in assignments electronically, then I'd have to say you really need MS Office. I use iWork and it's really great for all of the stuff I do on my own, especially when sending out the finished products to others in PDF, but it really falls down when the files have to be interoperable with windows users who also have to edit them.

Yeah, basic stuff can be exported to Office formats, but complex tables and art will not transfer well. For all of the stuff that others have to edit with me, I use Office for Mac. I don't like it, but it stops all the complaints.

Of course if you KNOW most or all the people you work with have Macs and likely have iWork, then you're fine.
Click to expand...

I have both and apart from the nice 3D pie charts, the full screen feature of Pages and some nice templates; I haven't found anything that made me choose iWork over Office for Mac.

But you might just as well use NeoOffice. It's a great open-source application for free.

For virtualisation, you might use Parallels (fast but can be buggy, depending on your softwares), Fusion (stable but currently slower) or Sun's free software that I cannot remember. Or you can just run Windows natively.


I've never had a PC on my own, but sometimes I can understand people who just buy a reasonably priced PC. When I was doing a law course, my Mac was actually making things more difficult for me. I found Total Commander an excellent thing to organise files on Windows. So I also recommend getting Xfolders, RAGE Macintosh Explorer or the paid Path Finder, if you choose a Mac.
 
If iWork doesn't work, try the free openoffice.org before buying MSOffice (with it I managed not to install ANY microsoft software on my new MBP)
 
This is a biased place to ask this question. Really, you should check with the department of your major at your school to ask about platform preference.

Furthermore, how long has it been before anyone that responded actually has been to college? Schools buy site licenses to software that they distribute to students. 99% of it is for windows, which means it's a pain to constantly reboot into bootcamp or deal with virtual machines.

The real answer to this question is: what is your major, what do you suspect you will have to do with the machine?

Need something to type on and keep your music library in order? Then.. try a mac. Need to be able to run lots of windows specific software? Then... PC is likely a better choice.
 
r3dhawk said:
I will be a freshman at Southeast Missouri State

its not that i NEED a MBP for my major, its just that i have worked very hard through HS to earn a substantial scholarship so i want to reward myself for my hardwork. I have also had a 20+ hr/week job for the past three years. I can definately afford one.

the only thing is that my dad doesnt think Macs are good for college (i know i know... :/) so im trying to convince him other wise
Click to expand...

It might help if you said what your major is.
 
r3dhawk said:
I will be a freshman at Southeast Missouri State
Click to expand...

Take a look at this page from Southeast Missouri State.

I suppose these are minimum requirements, and your school's information technology office supports Macs.

Please contact the Criminal Justice Department and talk to a professor about what they suggest for a student major.
 
you guys are awesome


i know i will get biased responses but if not a mac then would you recommend an ASUS pc? particularly the ul50vt? im not so sure on the ultra low voltage processor...
 
r3dhawk said:
criminal justice
Click to expand...

For what it's worth I'm majoring in CJ as well and I have an mbp with windows 7 also. I have no problems using only OS X because I have ms office and iwork installed on it but every once in a while if I need windows I just reboot.. it takes literally 30-45 seconds. My opinion: why limit yourself to one OS when you can have easy access to both on a better machine?
 
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