[scuzzo84]

Basically I have this mom who left a message on my phone about wanting a computer for her daughter who is about to start college. I always recommend getting a mac for everyone who talks to me about computers, since I dont want to hear about spyware, viruses and all that which could make a new computer seem like its an old computer by slowing it down. Anyways I want to tell her to get a mac, but I am sure she will be concerned about some things that a windows box would have that a mac wouldnt.

So far the key things I am thinking she will need should be there
- office for mac
- all the browsers are there
- all the media players

I cant think of anything else. The only problem I see is that maybe one of her classes will deal with a windows only application? Then what? Will she have to get a virtualpc or something?

Keep in mind these people arent technical and they dont have a large budget. Is it still ok to recommend a mac?

Advice please! Also whats the cheapest mac laptop or desktop for her, from my understanding she will just be doing the basics, writing up her homework, checking her email, listening to music and so on.

Thanks

[Gossamer]

If money is a huge issue, just get the cheapest Dell laptop, it will work fine for what she wants to do with it. If she can afford the $1050 MacBook, then definitely do that. If Windows-only stuff is needed, she can most likely use a lab on campus, if she doesn't have the know-how or budget to install Windows with Parallels or BootCamp.

[ajprice]

MacBook laptop is $1099, Mac mini desktop is $599, plus monitor, keyboard and mouse if they don't have those already.

You can get Office for Mac. Apple's own equivalent to this would be iWork (a set of 2 apps, Pages is Word equivalent, Keynote is Powerpoint equivalent.)

Safari is Apple's own browser, Firefox, Opera and others are also available. IE isn't up to date anymore, it got left at version 5 if its still available, but then its not that great anymore compared to Safari, Firefox and the others.

Quicktime is Apple's own, You can get Windows Media Player up to v9, I think. Theres a free Quicktime plug in now to play WMV through Quicktime, called Flip4Mac.

If they need Windows, as Gossamer said, get Boot Camp (free) or Parallels (not free) and a fresh copy of Windows and away you go.

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by ajprice

MacBook laptop is $1099, Mac mini desktop is $599, plus monitor, keyboard and mouse if they don't have those already.

Don't forget student discounts, meaning $1049 for the MacBook and $579 for the Mini.

[ajprice]

Good point well put! .

[zerostar]

Refurb education priced Mac Books are as low as $949

[Chuckit]

A woman asked me to do the same thing recently. She made a big deal of price, so I took her to Dell's Web site and showed her their super-low-end laptop, which is pretty obviously rinky. She goes, "Well, maybe. What would you get if it were you?" So then I take her to Apple's site and show her the MacBook. He is now greatly enjoying his first Mac.

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

A woman asked me to do the same thing recently. She made a big deal of price, so I took her to Dell's Web site and showed her their super-low-end laptop, which is pretty obviously rinky. She goes, "Well, maybe. What would you get if it were you?" So then I take her to Apple's site and show her the MacBook. He is now greatly enjoying his first Mac.

Did he/she get a sex change in between ordering the MacBook and receiving it?

[scuzzo84]

if she was to get a current macbook or mini or imac, how long do you think these would last her until she will need to get a more updated mac? Im guessing at least 4 years especially since shes not doing video editing or playing super highend games, just the basics of checking email, loading up pictures, doing homework....

[Chuckit]

She ordered the MacBook for her son.

[scuzzo84]

Also whats the cheapest mac keyboard and mouse I can get from the mac mini? Can I just get an usb mouse and keyboard or does it have to say mac compat.

[Chuckit]

Any normal USB mouse and keyboard will work, though you'll probably want to get a keyboard that has the right keys (e.g., apple key instead of Windows key).

[tooki]

Anyone can get a MacBook from Amazon for $999 after rebate, with no tax and no shipping.

tooki

[scuzzo84]

looks like shes getting a dell E1405 its 700 bucks but later she asked me what anti virus is good, i wanted to hang up but ...........sigh...........

thanks guys

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by scuzzo84

looks like shes getting a dell E1405 its 700 bucks but later she asked me what anti virus is good, i wanted to hang up but ...........sigh...........

thanks guys

Oh gods. Windows PCs + College Network = BAD.

She's going to have to pay for 4 years of Anti-Virus at least while she's in college. So that's $50 for Norton AntiVirus, plus $40/year for 4 years for subscritpion, so you can tack on another $210 to that $700 Dell for AntiVirus. If she goes the free route, she can get AVG Free edition, which has annoying popups.

She'll also need anti-spyware software. If she's going to be on the college network, she'll want a Linksys router with a hardware firewall. Those were required at my university for Windows desktop computers if you wanted to use the school's network. They couldn't do much about the laptops.

It's not too late to send it back. A MacBook is the best way to go. She can run OS X and Windows on it, and as long as she's content using OS X, it's not likely she'll have to worry about antivirus, antispyware, keyloggers, etc. That's like taking $200 off the MacBook price.

[tooki]

Most colleges have site-licensed antivirus software available for free.

tooki

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by tooki

Most colleges have site-licensed antivirus software available for free.

tooki

Yes, our school offers Spybot Search and Destroy along with McAfee and will not let you on the network until it's confirmed that certain security measures are in place, IE virus software, complicated password, etc. Macs on the other hand, plug 'em in, you're done.

[©öñFü$íóÑ]

Although I've stuck with my Mac from 1995-2000 and was able to do all my school work on it, I eventually moved to the PeeCee in late 2000 because my programming class required it.

Having said that, I'd still say that a Mac would be perfect for college for the following reasons (imho):

1) not as many retail games on it as compared to the PC... which allows/forces the student to focus more on school work.............................................. ..... well, either that or at least he'd have to search extra hard over the net to find some real quality/POPULAR games.

2) Office for Mac. EVERYTHING should work fine with files created in formats "for and from" Windows PeeCee's.

3) If the student has to do PowerPoint presentations (typical in Business or upper-division courses), usually all that would be needed is a video adapter (sold separately) to connect to the "media box" receptacle/hub in the classroom. These days, college bookstores are usually decent in carrying Apple products, including various adapters required for classroom use on that particular campus. (at least SFSU is.... last i checked.....)

4) Ridiculously simple to use. But in all fairness, most computers of today (Macs and PeeCee's) are pretty much "boot-up, and run"; they hardly require any tinkering around with........ except for when softwares ask for personal preferences or registration info.

5) Spyware/adware... I think the Mac platform is mostly safe.................................. FOR NOW. Given time, as Apple gains more marketshare and more and more people start to use more Macs, you can easily bet your 401k that so will the internet ad agencies.


I also think my last bit of advice can apply to any -serious- college student:

No matter what computer it is... if it's for work or school, keep it STRICTLY for work or for school. If it's for family archival stuff, or just launching and running productivity apps or even games..... fine.

Don't search for 'questionable' web sites (pr0n, w@r3z, p2p....... you name it). Those are usually the kinds of websites or places that contain malicious code or simply play host to malicious programs.

Create multiple e-mail addresses. I usually have 5 at a time: one for school, one for work, one for family, one for online registrations, and one for online registrations that i believe may invite spam (a judgement call).

Finally, TURN JAVA OFF, religously BAN Internet Explorer from your machine, and keep core System software and frequently used programs stuff up to date and learn to practice good back-up routines.

[Love Calm Quiet]

Tell us WHAT college.
I helped my step-daughter get computer-set for Edu pgm (grad) at UNC-G. There were a few hiccups with "Blackboard" (PITA), and some of what staff said was idiocy, but by switching from Safari to FireFox, all the web-based stuff went fine.
Talk to the IT dept about support: some (like UNC-G) proclaim "you're on your own" to Mac-ers. And then profs will say "This process *requires* a PC" when Mac works find. Other times they'll asure you that Mac is OK but there are glitches. [of course edu depts tend to be dumber than dirt on the average]

I gave her an iBook with 24/7 tech support by phone: seemed to ease the occasional issues (only 3 in her 12 mos so far). Try debugging windoze over the phone.

[bstone]

i got my 1.83ghz MacBook for less than $1000 with the student discount and no DVD drive (Combo drive). I doubt she will need to burn DVDs.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Love Calm Quiet

Tell us WHAT college.
I helped my step-daughter get computer-set for Edu pgm (grad) at UNC-G. There were a few hiccups with "Blackboard" (PITA), and some of what staff said was idiocy, but by switching from Safari to FireFox, all the web-based stuff went fine.
Talk to the IT dept about support: some (like UNC-G) proclaim "you're on your own" to Mac-ers. And then profs will say "This process *requires* a PC" when Mac works find. Other times they'll asure you that Mac is OK but there are glitches. [of course edu depts tend to be dumber than dirt on the average]

I gave her an iBook with 24/7 tech support by phone: seemed to ease the occasional issues (only 3 in her 12 mos so far). Try debugging windoze over the phone.

So, put Parallels on it and be done with it.

I've never had a problem with Blackboard, though.

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by ©öñFü$íóÑ

Create multiple e-mail addresses. I usually have 5 at a time: one for school, one for work, one for family, one for online registrations, and one for online registrations that i believe may invite spam (a judgement call).

This is very good advice. I treat my Iowa State-given address like Gold, no one gets it. I have an identical Gmail address I use for normal stuff, and another Gmail address as a 'blow-off' address for the times when I'm required to give an address but don't want to.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Oh gods. Windows PCs + College Network = BAD.

She's going to have to pay for 4 years of Anti-Virus at least while she's in college. So that's $50 for Norton AntiVirus, plus $40/year for 4 years for subscritpion, so you can tack on another $210 to that $700 Dell for AntiVirus. If she goes the free route, she can get AVG Free edition, which has annoying popups.

Both the school I just finished at and the one I'm at now offer FREE antivirus packages-in fact, it's nearly mandatory that students use these packages to connect to the campus network.

Originally Posted by olePigeon

She'll also need anti-spyware software. If she's going to be on the college network, she'll want a Linksys router with a hardware firewall. Those were required at my university for Windows desktop computers if you wanted to use the school's network. They couldn't do much about the laptops.

Spyware finders are free-and easy to use. The better ones like Spybot are very handy, very simple, and do a great job. Unfortunately the field of spyware finders is not as unified as the antivirus field, so using two (such as both Spybot and Ad-Aware) is worthwhile. Still, no problem, still free. Schools vary on what network equipment they'll allow connected to their wired network. Both of the above mentioned schools FORBID attaching any network equipment to the network because it's a huge security problem. Instead, they (both) have a campus-wide wireless network and vigilant network security people that work hard at stopping morons from using the school's pipe to download pirated music and movies-and rob bandwidth from researchers and legitimate student uses. And again, with a FREE antivirus package (my current school provides Symantec Client Security for FREE, which includes a kick-butt firewall and award-winning PC antivirus protection), the school is not in any danger from a student's computer.

Originally Posted by olePigeon

It's not too late to send it back. A MacBook is the best way to go. She can run OS X and Windows on it, and as long as she's content using OS X, it's not likely she'll have to worry about antivirus, antispyware, keyloggers, etc. That's like taking $200 off the MacBook price.

There's a huge price difference between a $700 Dell and a $1000 MacBook. And since she probably won't have to pay for either antivirus or antispyware, there's no "$200 of the MacBook price" involved. Some of my classmates are actually figuring out how to live without a telephone of any kind, finding out that there really are 10,000 ways to prepare rice (and they're all boring after a short time), and otherwise scrimping just to pay tuition. If a Dell is what the family can afford, DON'T recommend they go for something they CAN'T afford.

[seanc]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

If she goes the free route, she can get AVG Free edition, which has annoying popups.

What annoying popups? I have it running on all of my Windows pcs and haven't noticed any apart from the update window. McAfee likes to pop up in the system tray and when I used Norton all those years ago it would constantly bombard me with a red window stating that I had a virus and then tell me it couldn't delete it.

[ghporter]

That old Norton behavior is not mirrored in Symantec AV. If it thinks it found a virus, it will quarantine the file and let you figure it out, but most of the time it manages to completely remove the offending file right away. Not that I've had much experience with that-I've been using their firewall for years, so I haven't had a virus at home yet. Really.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by ghporter

There's a huge price difference between a $700 Dell and a $1000 MacBook.

$900 - $700 = $200. That is not a huge difference. That's about the price of one useless textbook.

[JoshKurtz]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

$900 - $700 = $200. That is not a huge difference. That's about the price of one useless textbook.

It's a pretty huge difference if you're a parent who has to send their kid to school and still has one or two more in high school.

And I don't know about you, but I get a little pissed off at having to spend $200 on a useless textbook.

But if it's no big deal you can pm me and I'll give you my paypal id so you can wire me $200.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by JoshKurtz

It's a pretty huge difference if you're a parent who has to send their kid to school and still has one or two more in high school.

It's way less than the $700 they're spending on the Dell, or the $400 they could save by going with a cheaper laptop. They're obviously not watching every dime.

Originally Posted by JoshKurtz

And I don't know about you, but I get a little pissed off at having to spend $200 on a useless textbook.

So do I. I would rather put the money into a good computer.

[brassplayersrock²]

if she went to berklee, every student must purchase a basic MBP through the school (or already have some kind of up to date or semi up to date) apple computer to be able to do a LOT of the tech. music things were taught to do here at Berklee

alex

[ghporter]

The Dental School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio has all electronic texts-and they're Mac based-so EVERY dental student gets a new MBP as part of his or her tuition. You can tell when the new class has arrived-lots of shiny laptop covers floating around and people saying "Gee, this Mac is COOL!"

Some other schools have programs that require computers. Having your own computer and not depending on the school's computer lab (no matter how good it is) for EVERYTHING you need to write/research/study is a Good Thing. A $700 laptop should last through 4 years of college, at which point the student can get a nice job and buy a better computer. Hey, would you recommend a top-of-the-line Volvo for a new college student because it's a better car than the beater they already have?

[Chuckit]

If they were buying a car $200 cheaper but way worse than a top-of-the-line Volvo, I would probably recommend the Volvo, yeah.

[Kr0nos]

Why is this even a question anymore, when you can buy a MacBook or a mini for under $1000, and have it run BOTH Windows and OS X (not to mention Linux)?

[generationfourt]

No it's a bad idea. You learn a lot when your comp crashes at 2 am in the middle of finishing a paper. Or a virus eats your HD. builds character!!!

[funkboy]

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: No viruses. Microsoft Word still works. Beautiful, eye-catching design (how many people asked me in college "what kind of computer is that? Where did you get it? Wow I'd like one"... and nope, it never got stolen!)

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by generationfourt

No it's a bad idea. You learn a lot when your comp crashes at 2 am in the middle of finishing a paper. Or a virus eats your HD. builds character!!!

As I've posted, using FREE antivirus, security, and antispyware, I have managed to NEVER have a problem with viruses. I have had a couple of hard drives fail through the years (like about 16 years), but never while I've needed them for deadlines. There is nothing inherently less robust or reliable than on a Mac on a Windows machine that's properly set up. One must simply not take the advice of a 19 year old BestBuy salesdrone whose entire computer experience is WOW. That's not a hard thing to do.

[Chuckit]

You know a lot of about computers. To assume that somebody else would keep theirs as skillfully seems like wishful thinking to me. All my friends, even with antivirus software, have been infected.

[generationfourt]

Originally Posted by ghporter

As I've posted, using FREE antivirus, security, and antispyware, I have managed to NEVER have a problem with viruses. I have had a couple of hard drives fail through the years (like about 16 years), but never while I've needed them for deadlines. There is nothing inherently less robust or reliable than on a Mac on a Windows machine that's properly set up. One must simply not take the advice of a 19 year old BestBuy salesdrone whose entire computer experience is WOW. That's not a hard thing to do.

the original poster said the computer is for a girl in college.

enough said.

[JoshKurtz]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

You know a lot of about computers. To assume that somebody else would keep theirs as skillfully seems like wishful thinking to me. All my friends, even with antivirus software, have been infected.

While keeping it up helps, people can know little to nothing about proper Windows upkeep and still get by okay. My wife had a pc for school. It was the first laptop HP released with XP so that dates it at 2001. She just stopped using it a couple months ago and never had any viruses or spyware.

What did she do? She never looked at porn or downloaded cracks/serials. She barely gave her email address to anyone and didn't open stuff from people she didn't know, especially those with attachments. She used her pc for schoolwork. I'm not saying that pc's are better by any means but they aren't useless and they're great if you're on a budget. Mac's are great but they cost more than their Windows counterparts up front. And to go a little off the subject, I wanted a Mac so bad when I was in school but couldn't afford one so I put Debian on my Dell and made KDE look as much like OS X as I could. I finally got an iBook when I was almost done with school so I no longer had to pretend.

Recently, she got a Mac and she loves it. We'll probably buy her a MBP in a couple months to get her through nursing school but, fortunately, we're in a financial situation right now that we can afford it. If we weren't--and believe me, we've struggled--we would buy a Core Duo Dell for $700 and not feel bad about it because sometimes, to some people, that $200-300 makes the difference between their electric bill getting paid or not.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by generationfourt

the original poster said the computer is for a girl in college.

enough said.

Nope. That girl will have her college's IT department to help her set up what she needs. That's very different from Joe "computer wannabe" going to BestBuy or Circuit City and falling into the idiotic clutches of their drones. Really. My school's IT department is NOT staffed by students (I have yet to see one that was) but rather professionals with certifications galore. If I have a question, I ask them and they give me good information. If one of my classmates has a problem, they ask and get help. One is getting a MacBook Pro very soon, and will simply walk in to the Network office and say "I'd like to get this on the network," and they will take care of the settings for her (it's not automatic because of the way the network is configured), including pointing her to all the stuff that's free (including an antivirus package for Macs). That's a big difference from asking the kid at BestBuy how to get online.