Thanks to conservatism_IS_compassion for the ping!!
Posted on 07/17/2017 9:04:12 AM PDT by jacquej
My grandson has been accepted into the Business School at the University of Michigan, and we are all happy for him.
Here is the dilemma. They strongly advise that all incoming student have a PC, not a Mac. Since we are all Mac users from way back, we do not know enough about PCs to make an intelligent purchase.
We do know that Macs can run PC software partitioned, but it seems that there are some software programs that do not run well on partitioned Macs (proprietary, maybe?)
So can you all offer to help, without turning it into a platform fight?
I used the PC platform for 30 years and then moved to my Macbook Pro back in ‘13.
Other than a few minor items, I have never had a problem running MS Office from my Mac.
Safari is probably the biggest problem causer and there are other browsers out there which are more PC-friendly.
Advice...stay with Mac, install MS Office on it and call it done.
I am not computer literate enough to make any intelligent comments about their reasoning as stated at that link I provided, however, I was confident that others could and would.
They say you “can” bring a MAC but be prepared for some extra “hoops” to jump through.
A distant relative of mine went to a business school in Italy a few years back where they required all students to have a MacBook Pro.
Thanks for that info about Sophos.
Run VMWare, or Parallels, or whatever or even run it native, as has been suggested.
Many of the engineers at the refinery where I worked used Macs and were capable of doing anything a PC would allow.
Maybe this has changed in recent years...
I only have experince with the laptops, and in that area, I agree completely. Well built, common (dirt cheap, used), and reliable. I've also had half a dozen HP's (I'm the IT guy for the family, HA!), and they fall apart.
I thank you all again. This has been so helpful! Will let you know what they decide upon.
Thank you for your textbook example of just the sort of irrational bias that I was referencing. Perfect.
Double boot is annoying.
Buy 2 PCs. The school uses PC so buy PC for school.
Post school get a MAC.
Also buy up cheap tablets when needed, such as dedicated internet browsing. Multi computer ownership has benefits but not all at once so they are not all obsolete at once.
Thanks to conservatism_IS_compassion for the ping!!
we do not know enough about PCs to make an intelligent purchase.
Get the new Windows 3.1 : )
Why not rely on the number one PC manufacturer in the world. I have for the past 15 years and they’ve never let me down. The name is Lenovo. Desktop machines are solid and their Think Pad notebooks are super.
I volunteer at a computer learning center here in town. We have 15 Lenovo desktops being used everyday of the week for class. We installed them over Christmas break in 2008. In the eight following years the only problem we’ve had was a mouse that went bad. Lenovo overnighted a new mouse. In fact, they overnighted 2 mice. Asked us to put one on the shelf.
We just replaced those eight machines with new Lenovos because we got a community grant.
Lenovo makes super, sturdy business-rated computers. Period.
I have a Lenovo Think Station engineering machine at home and a Lenovo Think Pad for the road. A number 1 in my book.
Son who is a multi language programmer for NTT Data in Plano can do everything on his Macbook Pro - except for one security program that runs over a VPN to pull code from a customer vault.
Buy them the most expensive Mac you can, so that the hardware will last years. I spent about $3k for my daughter's system, but she is in hardcore engineering.
For a PC, I buy almost all mine at Costco, getting the top of the line, and get a 4 year warranty using their VISA card.
If you buy a PC, get a loaded system.
Speaking as a dude who makes my living off Windows.
“One word - Dell.”
I vote for Dell as well . Very reliable and the support I’ve gotten was excellent( China as I am in Japan ) .
Oh well. Opinions are like arseholes, everybody has one.
I've got Trusteer installed on my Mac, provided by my credit union, so I don't know what they were talking about.
Well, gee, I'm glad you told us upfront. We'd never have guessed from your load of myths you proceed to dump in the rest of your post. The fact is that Microsoft has spent MORE money to push the Liberal agenda than Apple ever has. . . as has Bill Gates. And in the case of Gates, far more money than Steve Jobs.
Apples are for children, artists or dreamers with their heads in la-la land.
You claim to have worked with UNIX, but seem to be unaware that the best selling completely POSIX compliant and trademarked UNIX in the world is Apple OS X and now MacOS. . . a very powerful UNIX™. You also seem to be unaware that Apple Macs run far more software than any other computer, including your vaunted Windows computers. I have run my main Mac with NINE completely different Operating Systems running simultaneously. . . including four different iterations of Windows, two flavors of Linux, UNIX™ (the native OS), and two versions of OSX. Try that on a Windows PC.
So "Apples are for children, artists dreamers," eh? Which of those categories do these NASA engineers who planned, engineered and executed the landing of the Curiosity Rover on Mars fall under, higgmeister?
Incidentally, another view of that same room, shows that those engineers are running Mac OSX, not Windows of Linux. There are only two Window PC computers out of over 35 computers being used by these NASA engineers in that team. So much for your ignorant claims about Apple Macs being for children, artists, and dreamers. You just proved you haven't a clue what you are talking about.
Oh, you apparently don't know that IBM, one of the largest businesses in the world, is in the process of completing moving every single one of their employees over to using Apple computers. . . all 250,000 of them. They've discovered that it is far less expensive to support Apple gear than Windows PCs by a HUGE amount, and that the Total Cost of Ownership of the Apple computers is far less than the Windows PCs. There's another nail in the coffin of your claims.
It was early. IBM had bugs. They had to bring out tech service. It works on mine now too.
Thank you for getting your ping list on to help us make a good choice. I respect all platforms, as each meets the needs of a varied public.
I am so grateful for the wise advice being given, and - other Mac users might come up against a circumstance where a PC is required, and this information could be so helpful.
I believe it was PC Magazine which voted the Mac running Windows under Boot Camp as the best PC bar none. You just need to buy a copy of Windows 10 or what ever flavor and follow the instructions at Apple or other websites/YouTube videos for the install procedure. When done you can boot into either operating system.
Apple does not use cheap components which many other PCs use, so it will last longer and run better.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.