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Computer Buying Help: Mac vs. PC

Had this same internal debate back in December and ended up going with the MBP over another PC. It has more firepower than I need, and I'm still getting used to it, but as a family with multiple iPhones and an iPod, with all our music on itunes, it's pretty awesome how seamlessly they all interface. It's also about a billion times faster doing everything than my PC. I doubt you'd regret it.

FWIW, I do miss MS Word on my MBP. Text Editor is not a great substitute, IMO.
 
Justin Long is way cooler than that old guy. The former made a college, chills with Louis Black and hooks up with Blake Lively.
 
Went with the Mac Book Pro. Any recommendations on programs or apps to download especially free ones?
 
Say Hey Deac said:
Had this same internal debate back in December and ended up going with the MBP over another PC. It has more firepower than I need, and I'm still getting used to it, but as a family with multiple iPhones and an iPod, with all our music on itunes, it's pretty awesome how seamlessly they all interface. It's also about a billion times faster doing everything than my PC. I doubt you'd regret it.

FWIW, I do miss MS Word on my MBP. Text Editor is not a great substitute, IMO.
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You can get MS Office for Mac you know. I couldn't imagine using Text Editor as a full time work processing app.
 
1Password for Mac is one of the few pieces of software that I've paid for. Check it out. It's fantastic.
 
I used to think Apple was just overpriced shit but now I have a MacBook and it just blows everything else I've used out of the water. I just need a computer for basic stuff, note taking, and internet. The computer is fast, it doesn't freeze up much and I love how sleek/light it is.

As far as just being a simpleton for computers the Mac is worth every penny I paid.
 
greekdeac2011 said:
Depends what you're looking to do. MS Office is a must if you need Word or Excel.
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Still debating on what I want to do about that. This is not a work computer so may just take the advice of a previous poster and just use google docs for creating basic excel and word type documents when I need to.
 
Open Office is your friend. It works on all the major operating systems, and is free.
 
I used open office for a little while and found it to be really laggy. Took forever to open. But it could have improved since then
 
If you work for a medium to large company, be sure to check and see if they have a Microsoft account.

My sister just got a Mac and was looking at $200 for Office, then we realized my company, her company, and my dad's company all have a deal where you can get Office for $9.99, and it includes 2 licenses (typically one home and one work both for personal use, but you could use them any way you want). Basically it's a way for Microsoft to make some extra cash on site license customers. Anyway, a lot of people don't know it's offered - and odds are you at least have a friend or something who could hook you up. Just be careful to download the right version because it's a little confusing since the site didn't list them as Mac or Windows - but you can tell by the year (2011 is Mac, 2010 is Windows).
 
i'm gonna throw this question out here, my power cord on my macbook is busted and I need to get a new one, can I buy a cheap foreign one on the interwebz or do I need to go with a real one?
 
rjequalsmj said:
i'm gonna throw this question out here, my power cord on my macbook is busted and I need to get a new one, can I buy a cheap foreign one on the interwebz or do I need to go with a real one?
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I'd say go legit. I tried a couple 3rd party power cords for Apple products and they've been complete shit. If they're screwed up or not quite the right specs it can reduce your battery capacity as well. For adapters/cables and such, cheapo is usually fine. For power supply stuff, I'd stick with the real deal. Although you can try heading to an apple store and claiming it happened during normal use...
 
I've known several people to just take their busted power cord to an apple store and gotten free replacements, no questions asked.
 
Deadbolt said:
I've known several people to just take their busted power cord to an apple store and gotten free replacements, no questions asked.
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true, well I used to have apple care but my comp is like 3/4 years old now so it ran out. I figured they'd make me buy it but I guess we'll see.
 
DCDeac said:
I'd say go legit. I tried a couple 3rd party power cords for Apple products and they've been complete shit. If they're screwed up or not quite the right specs it can reduce your battery capacity as well. For adapters/cables and such, cheapo is usually fine. For power supply stuff, I'd stick with the real deal. Although you can try heading to an apple store and claiming it happened during normal use...
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Definitely this. You don't want to mess with third party power sources for any computer.
 
You can always make your Mac look and run just like a PC with one simple $79 program. So do all the cool things Macs offer on the Mac platform, when you you want the security of something comfortable or older PC programs you can not find on the Mac, switch it to PC mode.
 
Bootcamp is free and is a PC on your Mac. I have it for those just in case moments but I don't know anyone who prefers windows over OS X even with the strides Microsoft seems to be making since that disaster known as vista.

Also, don't get a third party accessory. They are normally trash. If you have apple care they replace it for free, and if you don't they still might.
 
You can pick up Parallels on the cheap with a .edu address, or they offer it in a bundle occasionally. The problem with Bootcamp, besides having to restart your computer, is that you have to partition disk space to it and it doesn't integrate well with MacOS, it's like having two computers (which is useful sometimes, but typically cumbersome). Parallels (or VMWare Fusion, but I prefer Parallels) is awesome stuff. You can run XP or 7 in a small virtual machine that resizes itself when needed, freezes for rapid start/stop, and runs within Mac OS. For example, you can have the Start Menu for Windows on the right side of your screen and the OSX dock at the bottom, launch programs from either and cut/copy/paste between them. My company only supports their online training on a particular version of Explorer in XP, so I have a small XP image just for that purpose. Most programmers on my contract here with IBM simply image their Thinkpads and run them on their Macbooks so they can code in the Unix-based MacOS but still get email on Notes/Sametime without carrying around 2 laptops.
 
I love VMWare on my PC. Why doesn't Fusion work well on Mac, DCDeac?
 
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