Potential problem with Mac over PC

[Quell]

I'll be attending college this fall and so will be getting a new laptop. I was really leaning toward getting a Macbook until just this week. I am in the business school (Kelley at IU) and everyone has told me that a Mac would not work well for the business school and that a PC is preferred. The reason being that there are certain apps and programs that only will work in XP (or apparently vista soon). My question is, do you think that the Macbook would be a good decision if I will have to spend around $100 extra to buy parallels and the a copy of vista ultimate (vista will only cost me like 20 bucks) and then use that to run any of the "programs"? Also, how is the performance while running parallels, such as, is there a considerable slow down in performance to the point where maybe a MBP would be warranted over a MB for the job.

Hope this all make sense and any advice you guys can give wouold be very helpful. I'm still at the college now for my orientation so I'll be asking some professors their opinions, but I'd like to here some people on the Mac side of things as well. thanks in advance.

 

[mad jew]

Well, you could use Boot Camp 'cause it's free. Without knowing the specific app(s) in question, it's difficult to offer any more advice.

 

[flopticalcube]

Speedwise the MB and the MBP are nearly the same. For most programs Parallels should be OK. You could always boot into Windows directly via bootcamp and then you would certainly have one of the faster Windows laptops around.

 

[Quell]

hmm, interesting, I didnt know about bootcamp but that looks like exactly what i would need. Sorry about the lack of info on the apps, but personnally i have no idea what they mean by that either.

I'll see if anyone knows anything about bootcamp on the campus tomorrow. I doubt they will but I think that will be enough to persuade my dad to buy it for me anyway thanks for the help ;D

 

[mad jew]

Boot Camp effectively lets your Mac boot into Windows and therefore run any apps that Windows can run. It'll be more than enough.

 

[brandon6684]

If you already have a copy of Windows or can get one cheap, bootcamp will do just fine, especially if they keep that quick boot thing in Leopard when it comes out.

 

[flopticalcube]

Bootcamp is actually still in beta but you can download it for free from Apple and it works pretty well. Its just a partitioning tool to separate your hard drive into a MacOS and a Windows partition and then a set of drivers for Windows. It should be your first step. Parallels and VMware Fusion can "discover" your Windows partition and use that at the same time OSX is running.

 

[krunk]

Sorry about the lack of info on the apps, but personnally i have no idea what they mean by that either.

I'd be very wary of these claims from a) sole windows users or b) less then proficient/knowledgeable mac users (there are a lot)

There are very rare cases I've seen where there really is no other option then to use windows and most of these were due to ignorance on the part of some person in authority rather then any real "problem".

*And* with intel macs...even these are only a minor inconvenience.

 

[mad jew]

I completely agree with krunk, which is why I asked for the names since we might be able to offer Mac alternatives or versions.