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Mac + PC at University?

B

BUbro90

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 19, 2009
24
0
Hey, so I'm headed off to college soon and, being in my university's business school, I was 'recommended' to have purchased a PC. Of course, I didn't (this is my first MBP by the way) and now I feel it may be wise for me to have access to a PC at all times. I'm really opposed to running Windows on my mac via Bootcamp or Parallels, simply because of the potential risk of getting a virus on my expensive machine.

I initially thought a netbook would suffice given my needs -- I would basically be using the pc mainly for the business classes (i.e. running ms office) -- especially because of the price ($299 for an Asus eee pc; $329 for an HP mini). However, I don't know if this 'setup' (me bringing two laptops to school) is superfluous. I've always used a pc :eek:, so the switch to a mac at this time (even though it's an amazing machine) has me worried...

Has anyone had success with two laptops (albeit, one laptop and a netbook)? Thanks!
 
I bought Office 08 for mac. I probably should have elaborated. My university says that we should buy MS Office Ultimate so we can run the windows-specific programs that Office for Mac doesn't offer (i.e. Groove, publisher). Eventually, Office 08 for Mac will be obsolete because Word, Excel, and PP won't get me through four years.
 
BUbro90 said:
I bought Office 08 for mac. I probably should have elaborated. My university says that we should buy MS Office Ultimate so we can run the windows-specific programs that Office for Mac doesn't offer (i.e. Groove, publisher). Eventually, Office 08 for Mac will be obsolete because Word, Excel, and PP won't get me through four years.
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I don't see how Word/Excel/PowerPoint wouldn't "get you through four years," since that's all I've ever used in Office Ultimate. I guess Outlook as well, but Entourage/Mail do a good job. Will your courses actually use groove/publisher? If you just need tools to get certain jobs done, you'll find equivalents of pretty much anything, and I doubt that there's a course that's requiring the use of say, Publisher. What school are you headed to?

Another option is Crossover, which should run most of the office suite without problems.
 
BUbro90 said:
I bought Office 08 for mac. I probably should have elaborated. My university says that we should buy MS Office Ultimate so we can run the windows-specific programs that Office for Mac doesn't offer (i.e. Groove, publisher). Eventually, Office 08 for Mac will be obsolete because Word, Excel, and PP won't get me through four years.
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They don't have MS Project either unfortunately. What you can do though is purchase Crossover Pro for Mac and run office utilities through that. If you ran Windows in Parallels or VMWare Fusion, there is very little chance that if you did get a virus, that it would affect your Host operating system (OS X). I highly recommend the Virtual Machine approach to this, its how I got through college for all of my MS only activities.
 
mwpeters8182 said:
I don't see how Word/Excel/PowerPoint wouldn't "get you through four years," since that's all I've ever used in Office Ultimate. I guess Outlook as well, but Entourage/Mail do a good job. Will your courses actually use groove/publisher?
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The entire business school was told this as a whole, so it's not a major-specific requirement. I was a little perplexed too...I've used Office for a long time and I've never even heard of these programs. For certain classes we work as groups, so I would assume that's why they want us to have groove...but still.
 
Just install VMware with Windows and use it specifically for those apps that aren't for OS X. Viruses really only come from downloading malicious files. You should be safe using Windows as long as it isn't your main OS.
 
Just use Parallels. If you're really paranoid about viruses, don't go on the internet while you're running your Virtual Machine. Buying a netbook just to have a Windows machine when your Mac will make a far better PC notebook is the height of silliness...
 
Its impossible for a Windows virus to "jump" to OS X from Bootcamp. Not only are there no viruses that do that but because Windows and OS X use different file systems and they cant write to eachothers file systems without special software installed. Plus it would be a ridiculous waste of time to write a "boot camp virus", Mac users are already rare, boot camp users are even rarer.

Dont let virus paranoia run your life, a little knowledge and defensive browsing goes a long way.
 
Running windows on your mac seems the best solution. If you get a virus on your windows portion all you have to do is delete windows, then reinstall it. A virus will not travel from windows to OSX.
 
Go for bootcamp, its the best solution and if you buy an antivirus program then you will be fine. I use bootcamp for some windows programs and games and run a free virus program called Avast!and have had no problems with viruses at all in the 5 months I have used it. Lugging two laptops around would be annoying and a virus jumping from windows to OSX is very unlikely. Just use bootcamp, it's the best solution, I love the speed it offers.
 
Thanks everyone so much, it really has helped me out significantly. It's hard not to be paranoid over virus protection when you're a pc user... I'll definitely put some of your suggestions to work. Thanks again!
 
stainlessliquid said:
Its impossible for a Windows virus to "jump" to OS X from Bootcamp. Not only are there no viruses that do that but because Windows and OS X use different file systems and they cant write to eachothers file systems without special software installed. Plus it would be a ridiculous waste of time to write a "boot camp virus", Mac users are already rare, boot camp users are even rarer.

Dont let virus paranoia run your life, a little knowledge and defensive browsing goes a long way.
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There are viruses that look for mac users running bootcamp and will take over your computer and bank accounts.. plus kill brain cells and give you a low sperm count.. be careful!
 
Out of interest does anyone actually use a laptop at uni? Because it seems that unless you have say an interactive lecture it seems kinda pointless. If the lecturer uses a powerpoint then you don't really need to type anything down and handwritten notes will do plus there is a recording.
 
OP, just use VM for school programs. Use MSOffice and view you virus prone porn site on OSX. Back-up your stuff and if anything happens, just restore. Why are you so paranoid?

ViM said:
Out of interest does anyone actually use a laptop at uni? Because it seems that unless you have say an interactive lecture it seems kinda pointless. If the lecturer uses a powerpoint then you don't really need to type anything down and handwritten notes will do plus there is a recording.
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Yes. Not everyone goes to a fancy school where the lectures are recorded or are interactive (i wish). They might not be all that useful in many lecture classes but some people need to run programs during class. Plus, laptop are portable to bring to a friends place, back home, or the library.
 
BUbro90 said:
I'm really opposed to running Windows on my mac via Bootcamp or Parallels, simply because of the potential risk of getting a virus on my expensive machine.
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I find it unbelievable how many people are still buying into this Apple marketing FUD.

I'm a systems administrator in a large environment and use all sorts of operating systems on a daily basis, from various flavors of Linux over Solaris to Windows Servers and Workstations and OS X (on my private machines).

I can tell you this from my professional experience: Use your common sense and all current Windows versions are as safe to use as a typewriter - even WITHOUT a dedicated anti-virus software on it.
 
spillproof said:
Why are you so paranoid?
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Because when you spend $3000 at the apple store for a mbp and the whole shabang, you want to be assured that no MS problems with viruses and such will show up on your mac.


spillproof said:
OP, just use VM for school programs. Use MSOffice and view you virus prone porn site on OSX. Back-up your stuff and if anything happens, just restore.
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Thanks, I'll give it a try...
 
spillproof said:
Yes. Not everyone goes to a fancy school where the lectures are recorded or are interactive (i wish). They might not be all that useful in many lecture classes but some people need to run programs during class. Plus, laptop are portable to bring to a friends place, back home, or the library.
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I don't think a uni is fancy if it has recording most of them have it in my state and this is Australia not a country like the US or UK. But yeah I see your point about the programs I guess in my lectures the only things people do with their laptops is go on facebook.

Anyway in regards to OP the virus won't jump from the windows partition to OSX unless you have a partition that is shared between both systems, i guess it is possible. Ultimately if you are just using windows for word, excel etc its highly unlikely you will get a virus. For piece of mind office for mac would be best although sometimes there are compatibility issues with users in a windows environment.
 
I surprised how many people are still afraid of viruses for Windows.

Just install windows on a partition. Don't be an idiot by downloading random stuff and you'll be fine.

If you're really paranoid, disable wireless on the windows partition and transfer files via USB.
 
You don't need another computer, i just graduated and whilst in a Dell centric school i ran Windows XP Pro & Office 2003/2007 via VMWare on my MBP (still do) to get stuff done when i needed to use programs like Access, Project Manager & other windows centric software and it worked like a charm for the 3 yrs.

All i had to do was dedicate 2GB of RAM (i had 4GB) to the the VM and used dual core support when running intensive apps and single core when running apps like word and all was good. I advised you to install as little as possible in other words only install what you need and download AVG which should cover you for virus protection...that and apply common sense

Avoid using the internet if you can and EVEN IF you get a virus just delete that partition/vm and start over (always backup important files). Getting a virus 'shouldn't affect your mac partition in anyway/shape/form eitherway
 
akonradi said:
A virus on a Windows partition will affect your Mac OS side and general hardware just as much as one on a netbook would.
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This is incorrect. There is not enough space to write why but in a short and sweet version of why:

Mac does not have the folders the virus will be searching out, macs do not have a registry like windows.


There is MUCH more to it but thats the short version. A virus is not going to affect your hardware either.
 
ViM said:
Out of interest does anyone actually use a laptop at uni? Because it seems that unless you have say an interactive lecture it seems kinda pointless. If the lecturer uses a powerpoint then you don't really need to type anything down and handwritten notes will do plus there is a recording.
Click to expand...

I used mine all the time last year. I type much, much faster than I write and so that's the only way to get down all the notes I want - only the basics are on the powerpoint slides, afterall.

This approach got me through the year with an 85% average anyway. :)

We only had one group presentation this year, but I used it for that too. There's also been odd occasions where having the laptop has made it easier to look things up but that won't happen too much now I've got an iPhone.

I'm also on clinical placement. Without doubt it'd be great if I could bring my laptop into the hospital too but I'm worried about theft and damage, plus I couldn't go on the network with it.
 
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