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MichaelJPR · Apr 2, 2006, 10:54 PM

I have a dilemma....

My wife is a teacher, leaving one school and moving to another. Her old school provided her with a laptop (a Dell); her new school doesn't. It's up to me to get her a new laptop.

MY clear choice is to get her some kind of Mac because I know I can take care of it. -- probably an iBook.

Her needs are all over the place though...besides needing to be able to make documents for where she teaches and do an occasional presentation or two, she's a graduate student who has to turn in papers and participate in online chat stuff (the college has their own web-based chat software) and now she just got hired to teach a "virtual class" through her new school system - another web-based system, I imagine.

All that web-based stuff kind of scares me, especially with Explorer going out of the OS X business. Will the iBook work at all these jobs, or would it be safer to buy her a windows laptop? Will the Intel iBooks that we're anticipating be any better at all these jobs?

All she says is, "Just make sure it works."

Any advice for me? Thanks in advance.....

tooki · Apr 2, 2006, 11:07 PM

Without knowing exactly what web applications she's working with, no one here could possibly even begin to give you an answer.

As for IE for Mac being cancelled... IE for Mac didn't support most of the IE-specific technologies anyway. Very few sites that require IE really work properly on IE for Mac. For the most part, they actually are using technologies that are specific to IE for Windows. Either that, or they are just badly-coded sites that are relying on IE's errant rendering behavior. But again, IE for Mac never rendered the same as IE for Win.

tooki

MichaelJPR · Apr 2, 2006, 11:15 PM

I knew it'd be hard to get an answer without knowing the web apps; the prob is, she'll need the computer before we'll know what the apps are...

Is it safe to think that between Safari, Firefox and maybe a couple of others that the technology would PROBABLY be covered?

She got freaked the other day whan she cut-and-pasted text from a Word file into the Mail app on my iMac. It looked fine on her end but all the PeeCee users had crazy characters in their emails. Not to start a whole 'nother thread, but does one prevent THAT problem by simply avoiding cut-and-paste from MS Word, or is it more complicated that that?

lilford · Apr 13, 2006, 06:19 AM

I would say between Safari Firefox and other Web Browsers, she should be able to get the job done with the ibook G4. You might want to wait until the intel version of the ibook comes out or else upgrade the RAM extensivly if she is going to be running a virtual classroom. I don't exaclty know what that is but i'm guessing like virtual kids on the screen?

eeeaa · Apr 13, 2006, 03:23 PM

If she winds up needing ActiveX support via IE 6 on the PC...
You could always get her a Mac, and buy VirtualPC. Sure, it's slow, but not as far as the IE 6 stuff goes. She'll be able to use IE 6 via VPC, and be able to do the rest on the Mac OS. ActiveX isn't supported on Macs, and certain Web sites (QuickBooks Online, for example) require that you use IE 6 - the Intranet that she is going to be logging into for her teaching class MAY require ActiveX support. With VPC, you cover all your bases.

lilford · Apr 13, 2006, 03:26 PM

How much can you get Virtual PC for? I really need that to play games..... but then I heard some people say you can't with the Virutal PC.

harrisjamieh · Apr 13, 2006, 04:03 PM

Originally Posted by Krjat

How much can you get Virtual PC for? I really need that to play games..... but then I heard some people say you can't with the Virutal PC.

Games in VPC? You have to be kidding - its performance is pathetic, it can barely run solitare!

lilford · Apr 13, 2006, 04:18 PM

Wow, must be bad, well that thought is over!

ghporter · Apr 13, 2006, 06:37 PM

Take a look at her college's web site; it may provide some sort of list of what apps she needs. There is a high possibility that the school will require her to use Windows-only apps. Upside: they have a standard software suite. Downside: it ain't Mac and you aren't familiar with it.

My personal experience with such web-based apps has been with WebCT, which features all sorts of the capabilities you mentioned-including chat. It's supposed to work on most platforms, but some of the features depend on plugins that work better with Windows than with Macs. Again, we can give you a much better answer if you can get details from your wife's school.

As for presentations and papers, Macs can do that sort of thing fabulously. No sweat, really. My wife finished her latest degree depending on an 800MHz G4 iBook (and got EXTREME discounts on Office:Mac from the school: less than $30).