Computer Advice

Ok here's the situation.
For my children we give them each a computer before they go off to college, usually a PC. (hp, dell etc.) My daughter does not want a PC because she says that Mac's are better and everybody uses mac's in college. I'm sure some of you have attended college she is attending Ohio Northern.

What do you recommend for College, please explain so i can have proof to show her that one is in fact better then the other.

 

I'm a student at Rutgers university in NJ, and I can say that certainly more people use PC's. same thing goes for my sister who just graduated from USC in Los Angeles.

heres the way I see it...
if shes not very computer savvy, both platforms have their ups and downs.

PC's-she'll be able to get more help if a problem does arrive. more of her peers, and university tech support are familiar with PC in more depth than Mac (generally).

Mac- she'll be far less prone to viruses or other junk floating around the network.

if she wants a mac, theres no major downside other than that. they do everything she'll need it to do.

 

Thanks for the advice, we were told by a few people who graduated from ohio state that MAC's are less compatable or somthing like that, do you know what this means

 

I am always reminded by this subject of the early days of home video: Beta vs. VHS. Betaphiles (like Mac afficionados) touted the format's superiority, but it ultimately came down to-- for better or worse-- to VHS being "what everybody else had". The only place in the world-- it appears to me-- that "everybody uses Macs" is on TV.

 

my stepdad works for purdue
and for years he used a mac
thats what they had
so he bought one for home

now he has both

see what the school has incase they need to use those
it might make things a little easier for them

and if you can afford it get a notebook or a laptop
that may help also


the whole world uses vhs, but betamax was better quality video

 

any other advice???

 

what do you want to know?

 

I dont see compatibility to be an issue that would arise.

most school computer labs have both MAC and PC available, so if she ever needed to do work in a computer lab (or print a report), there would be no issue.

also, nearly all of the programs she would be using (word processing, like MS Word) have Mac versions that are fully compatible.

i'd go with PC personally, only because i know how to keep them clean and running perfectly.

the main benefit i would see in a Mac laptop for your daughter is that its harder to get messy...ie get viruses or other nasties that slow the computer down.

its comin down to what she wants that is within your price range. take a look at the mac ibooks and powerbooks that you might afford, and then take a look at a windows laptop with a mobile processor (like the intel centrino) as those are the best for laptops.

 

like the first post stated, i would reccomend a pc over a mac becuase if something does happen, windows is alot easier to use for troubleshooting and more people know how to trouble shoot a pc than a mac. plus a pc is a easier user platform so if she is not computer savvy then she needs to get a pc for ease of use.

eric

 

Usually the college bookstore sells computers nowadays. Call them and ask if they carry Macs and PCs, and which is the better seller. Also what kinds of software ( eg, mostly PC or Mac). Sometimes they have special pricing for students, as well.

 

sometimes you can get an idea, by looking at the college class Schedule, and see what classes they have in either PC or Mac.......at the commuitiy college that I've been attending, most of the classes are PC, but two art teachers still haven't made the change from Mac, but the software has....things like photoshop, and autoccad started out on the Mac platform, and both have in recent years made the change and offered both.......wobbles

and some colleges are going with wireless, as it's easier then redoing all of the wiring...