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View Full Version : [SOLVED] Should I get a new macbook if I get the money or a pc notebook.



nerd0795
October 27th, 2008, 05:20 AM
Yay gonna be 15 in like 10 days :) Also since it's that time, I'm wondering what I should ask for my birthday a new aluminum macbook or a pc notebook. This notebook will be used to do school work on :) I'm going to be sharing data with a usb thumb drive (4GB) that works on mac, linux and windows. The school uses Windows XP and M$ office (not 2007, i think 2003) I will be running Ubuntu and Windows on it. I will do some geeky stuff on it since it will be my first computer that I own and I can do whatever I want with it. I know I like OS X. So what do you think? No biased opinions please. Oh and if I can't get enough for a macbook I'll be getting a notebook either way... it's just if I have enough :)

Yashiro
October 27th, 2008, 05:25 AM
If you get a Macbook leave OSX on it.

zmjjmz
October 27th, 2008, 05:25 AM
Yay gonna be 15 in like 10 days :) Also since it's that time, I'm wondering what I should ask for my birthday a new aluminum macbook or a pc notebook. This notebook will be used to do school work on :) I'm going to be sharing data with a usb thumb drive (4GB) that works on mac, linux and windows. The school uses Windows XP and M$ office (not 2007, i think 2003) I will be running Ubuntu and Windows on it. I will do some geeky stuff on it since it will be my first computer that I own and I can do whatever I want with it. I know I like OS X. So what do you think? No biased opinions please. Oh and if I can't get enough for a macbook I'll be getting a notebook either way... it's just if I have enough :)

There is no real difference between a PC and a Mac, but I get what you mean.
Anyways, If you want a triple boot you could spend something on an old MacBook Pro (used I guess) and try to get it working with Linux/Windows.

EDIT: Oh, and I'll be 16 in 10 days.

nerd0795
October 27th, 2008, 05:25 AM
If you get a Macbook leave OSX on it.

I am going to.. or else I wouldn't even get a mac.

nerd0795
October 27th, 2008, 05:26 AM
There is no real difference between a PC and a Mac, but I get what you mean.
Anyways, If you want a triple boot you could spend something on an old MacBook Pro (used I guess) and try to get it working with Linux/Windows.

EDIT: Oh, and I'll be 16 in 10 days.


That's the problem, is a used probably is out of warranty, and I want something that will last.

-grubby
October 27th, 2008, 05:27 AM
Congrats.. I turned 15 somehwhere around <less than a year> months ago. Wish I could buy a PC on my birthday, I had $50 I think, I forgot what I bought.



M$ office


I am quite fond of office, please, refrain from the dollar signs in Microsoft :(

I-75
October 27th, 2008, 05:27 AM
I would wait till "Black Friday" (day after Thanksgiving) before buying any PC. For the price of one higher end Mac laptop. You can get a full featured PC laptop for under $350 and that Mac selling for $999.

zmjjmz
October 27th, 2008, 05:28 AM
That's the problem, is a used probably is out of warranty, and I want something that will last.

The problem with the new ones is that they have no buttons at all whatsoever on the touchpad.
So you'll need OSX to do anything useful (sans external mouse that is).

nerd0795
October 27th, 2008, 05:29 AM
Congrats.. I turned 15 somehwhere around 8 months ago. Wish I could buy a PC on my birthday, I had $50 I think, I forgot what I bought.



I am quite fond of office, please, refrain from the dollar signs in Microsoft :(

The computer they have crash on me alot and only me. Maybe because I am the only one (i think) that knows what linux is in my school.

nerd0795
October 27th, 2008, 05:30 AM
The problem with the new ones is that they have no buttons at all whatsoever on the touchpad.
So you'll need OSX to do anything useful (sans external mouse that is).

The mouse button multi touch works on Windows but you just got the clicking and that's it. You also got two finger clicking and scrolling.

nerd0795
October 27th, 2008, 05:32 AM
I would wait till "Black Friday" (day after Thanksgiving) before buying any PC. For the price of one higher end Mac laptop. You can get a full featured PC laptop for under $350 and that Mac selling for $999.

I need one now, I can't wait or there will be no point. My semester is half done and I rather be using the laptop for the second half.

zmjjmz
October 27th, 2008, 05:33 AM
The mouse button multi touch works on Windows but you just got the clicking and that's it. You also got two finger clicking and scrolling.

But not in Linux.
Also, if you were to get a "PC" notebook you could just run Linux and run Office under Crossover or WINE if you truly need it, but Open Office 3 supports the new formats anyways.
If you absolutely want OSX you could look into OSX86 and see the real OSX.
EDIT: Hell, you could just buy a "PC" notebook with Linux pre-installed from the wonderfuls guys at ZaReason or system76 or Dell.

nerd0795
October 27th, 2008, 05:35 AM
But not in Linux.
Also, if you were to get a "PC" notebook you could just run Linux and run Office under Crossover or WINE if you truly need it, but Open Office 3 supports the new formats anyways.
If you absolutely want OSX you could look into OSX86 and see the real OSX.
EDIT: Hell, you could just buy a "PC" notebook with Linux pre-installed from the wonderfuls guys at ZaReason or system76 or Dell.

I would rather have windows on it because I am still not comfortable with having a linux only computer. Second is I wouldn't participate in OSX64 since it's illegal.

zmjjmz
October 27th, 2008, 05:38 AM
I would rather have windows on it because I am still not comfortable with having a linux only computer.
You can still install Windows on a Linux 'puter

And if you're willing to buy a 2000$ MacBook Pro you could also just buy an 800$ Linux computer and a 1200$ MacBook.

nerd0795
October 27th, 2008, 05:39 AM
You can still install Windows on a Linux 'puter

And if you're willing to buy a 2000$ MacBook Pro you could also just buy an 800$ Linux computer and a 1200$ MacBook.

i only said macbook not macbook pro. I gtg now.

ratmandall
October 27th, 2008, 05:46 AM
I CaN HaAZ 2 gRaNd?

SomeGuyDude
October 27th, 2008, 06:13 AM
Do you want OSX or not? That's really the thing.

50words
October 27th, 2008, 06:43 AM
Do you want OSX or not? That's really the thing.

That is part of it, but not the only thing. MacBooks have far better battery life than any PC. Well, you can get equivalent battery life in a PC, but only by adding an extra few pounds of battery. To get ~5 hours out of a ThinkPad, you need a 6-cell battery, which adds at least a pound, maybe two.

SomeGuyDude
October 27th, 2008, 06:47 AM
If you want to pay an extra $800 for the same hardware specs just for some extra battery life, more power to ya.

Ub1476
October 27th, 2008, 06:47 AM
That is part of it, but not the only thing. MacBooks have far better battery life than any PC. Well, you can get equivalent battery life in a PC, but only by adding an extra few pounds of battery. To get ~5 hours out of a ThinkPad, you need a 6-cell battery, which adds at least a pound, maybe two.

My Thinkpad is lighter and has longer battery life than my friends previous generation Macbook. Don't know about the new generation Macbooks though..

50words
October 27th, 2008, 06:54 AM
My Thinkpad is lighter and has longer battery life than my friends previous generation Macbook. Don't know about the new generation Macbooks though..

I can think of a couple reasons why this might be, but the battery time for a ThinkPad T400 with the regular 4-cell battery (the one they use for their weight numbers) is apparently about 3.5 hours. I think the T-series is the most-similar ThinkPad.

The advertised times for MacBooks have been 5 hours for the current and previous generation.

In my experience, both times are a bit optimistic, but my wife's MacBook gets well over 4 hours. My ThinkPad T43, however, has never gotten much more than 3 hours with a brand-new battery.

Vishal Agarwal
October 27th, 2008, 07:07 AM
Macbook has an excellent flavor for graphical works. It is an excellent tool for Designers. For Macbook The Ms Office is different. For your school work etc. Any other laptop will work. And I don't think you will keep your laptop for more then three or four years. So you should decide wisely.

10 days advance wishes.

mips
October 27th, 2008, 08:08 AM
Get a Thinkpad, I would anyway.

benplaut
October 27th, 2008, 08:13 AM
I'm not really sure why thinkpads are shipping standard with a 4 cell--in the past, I always remember standard being 6 cell, and extended (sticking out) being 9 cell.

I can pull about 3.5 hours out of my T60 with a two year old 6 cell, and about 5 from my T40 with an almost new 9 cell.

So... it again comes does to OSX or not.

erykroom
October 27th, 2008, 08:15 AM
Why dont you buy a Dell latitude. They are the best notebooks I know and the new E-series should be out soon.

The E-series promises battery life up-to 24h.

gn2
October 27th, 2008, 08:41 AM
That is part of it, but not the only thing. MacBooks have far better battery life than any PC.

Even an Asus Eee901?

billgoldberg
October 27th, 2008, 02:41 PM
Yay gonna be 15 in like 10 days :) Also since it's that time, I'm wondering what I should ask for my birthday a new aluminum macbook or a pc notebook. This notebook will be used to do school work on :) I'm going to be sharing data with a usb thumb drive (4GB) that works on mac, linux and windows. The school uses Windows XP and M$ office (not 2007, i think 2003) I will be running Ubuntu and Windows on it. I will do some geeky stuff on it since it will be my first computer that I own and I can do whatever I want with it. I know I like OS X. So what do you think? No biased opinions please. Oh and if I can't get enough for a macbook I'll be getting a notebook either way... it's just if I have enough :)

It doesn't matter what you buy, since you can run linux on everything.

However, if I were you I would buy a Desktop pc with a nice 22" inch screen.

I have a laptop and a desktop and I use my desktop 10 times more.

I actually dislike the laptop and only use it when my brother is on the desktop.

Viranh
October 27th, 2008, 03:46 PM
A regular notebook will beat a mac on price for the same hardware any day. I'd actually recommend a netbook just for regular school work. I bought a nice expensive laptop when I went to college and I found myself never using it because it was heavy, the battery life sucked, and generic school work just didn't require a lot of computing power. I ended up buying a Dell that was 7 years old with a 600 MHz processor for less than $100 to haul around and found it met my needs much better than my new computer. It even ran my engineering CA program. If you think you need more power, I highly recommend a laptop from System 76. Keep in mind that if you buy a laptop with Windows, it will be Vista because vendors were no longer allowed to sell XP preloaded as of June.

aschwerin.moses
October 27th, 2008, 04:30 PM
same configurations .. Mac would be costlier than a PC .. now why whould u got for a mac, just to show off.. that is silly.. and if are willing to certain amount for a mac, you might as well invest the same on a PC with better configuration and also might get a Bluray drive which the Mac somehow does not favour..

can anyways install windows, ubuntu and hackintosh ..


happy birthday wishes in advance.. God bless you

voteforpedro36
October 27th, 2008, 05:02 PM
The computer they have crash on me alot and only me. Maybe because I am the only one (i think) that knows what linux is in my school.

Are you saying that Microsoft Office crashes on a school computer when you are using it because you have heard of Linux?

mips
October 27th, 2008, 05:11 PM
.. now why whould u got for a mac, just to show off.. that is silly.. and if are willing to certain amount for a mac, you might as well invest the same on a PC with better configuration and also might get a Bluray drive which the Mac somehow does not favour..


Unless it's mostly dedicated to video I would say it is an image thing.

50words
October 27th, 2008, 06:22 PM
same configurations .. Mac would be costlier than a PC .. now why whould u got for a mac, just to show off.. that is silly.. and if are willing to certain amount for a mac, you might as well invest the same on a PC with better configuration and also might get a Bluray drive which the Mac somehow does not favour..

Apparently you can't get the same configuration. At the very least, Apple seems to be using more-efficient parts, which is why they have such better better battery life.

I don't want a Mac to show off, I want one because of the fast recovery from suspend (when using OSX), the great battery life, and the magnetic power coupling.

Show me a PC that has those features at the same weight, and I'll get that, instead.

d_skillz
October 27th, 2008, 06:38 PM
Macbook has an excellent flavor for graphical works. It is an excellent tool for Designers. For Macbook The Ms Office is different. For your school work etc. Any other laptop will work. And I don't think you will keep your laptop for more then three or four years. So you should decide wisely.

10 days advance wishes.

School work doesn't take up much processing/computing power so the MacBook for the price is definitely not going to be worth it but you have to decide if you want to use OSX or Linux.

Ub1476
October 27th, 2008, 06:54 PM
Apparently you can't get the same configuration. At the very least, Apple seems to be using more-efficient parts, which is why they have such better better battery life.

I don't want a Mac to show off, I want one because of the fast recovery from suspend (when using OSX), the great battery life, and the magnetic power coupling.

Show me a PC that has those features at the same weight, and I'll get that, instead.

Thinkpad X200 or X200s with 9-cell battery?

50words
October 27th, 2008, 07:27 PM
Thinkpad X200 or X200s with 9-cell battery?

Smaller screen, no DVD drive, and a bigger battery? Nope.

nerd0795
October 28th, 2008, 12:49 AM
Hahahahaha.... well turns out, I have no chance of getting $1000 or more for a macbook any time soon. So I guess my choice is clear ;) just a $500 notebook.