Time for a new system for daughter who is in school to be an architect specializing in interior design.
Is there a version of AutoCAD for OS X?
Is there a version of Photoshop for the Ma ... umm, never mind, I think I know the answer to this one.
Will she even need an Office type program?
Will it run Folding@home, so her Dad will have hope when he is even older and grayer?
This could be interesting.
>> Will she even need an Office type program? <<
Oddly, I used Macs last year for the first time in quite a while. I was shocked to find that MS Office ran better on Macs than on Windows. All I can figure is that MS knows it has to compete if it wants to sell Office to Mac users.
Unless you have use for Access (a program which is underused in homes and small businesses), OpenOffice is comparable to MS Office... but it’s available for free! (openoffice.com)
I don't have MS Office on my computers.I miss Word about 10 percent of the time I use TextEdit. OpenOffice-- open source freeware-- works pretty well on my Intel machine, although MS Office is still a little bit better.
Is MS Office worth the price? For me, no. For some probably, yes..
AutoCAD isn’t available for OS X. You’d have to go virtual or Boot Camp, or forget buying a Mac.
Photoshop was born on the Mac.
You can get MS Office, Apple’s own iWork suite or install the free Neo Office (Mac version of OpenOffice).
The F@H SMP client works.
Whether she needs Office or not depends on her. You can get the educational version of Office for Mac or PC for about $150, and it includes multiple installations.
The price on Autocad is pretty impressive. Four grand for the full version or $160 for a student version that expires in fourteen months.
Aside from AutoCAD itself running in either Boot Camp (full speed), or in a Virtualization such as Parallels or Fusion (10% speed reduction), there are UNIX CAD applications that will run on the Intel Macs such as Ribbonsoft QCAD, BRL-CAD, and Archimedes (which is specialized for Architecture).Remember that Macs are the preferred choice in the creative arts... including TV and Film for set design, so some native OSX CAD programs come out of that area and include ArchiCAD 11.0, Argon 7.6, Domus.Cad 14.1.1, and a host of others that can be found listed HERE.
Incidentally, AutoCAD had its roots in UNIX and was ported to Windows NT.
Keep in mind that the Architecture program at the college may have some specific software requirements and to check those out before committing to an applications. Whatever they require, it will run on a Mac.
Is there a version of Photoshop for the Ma ... umm, never mind, I think I know the answer to this one.
Yup, you probably do... but just in case your answer is wrong... the right answer is yes.
Will she even need an Office type program?
That depends on how long the papers she will be writing will be and whether they will need foot notes or end notes, section breaks, etc. If she will be only doing short papers, then the iWork suite from Apple will do fine. If she is going to do really long papers, then Word is probably a good choice and Microsoft Office for Mac would be a good purchase.Speaking of purchases, Apple offers educational discounts for students in college and Microsoft sells student versions of Office for Mac and AutoCAD is also available in a student version for about $150.00. The discount savings can more than cover the costs of a licensed version of Windows to run anything absolutely required that you can't find in a Mac OS X version.
Will it run Folding@home, so her Dad will have hope when he is even older and grayer?
Absolutely... I have seven Macs running Folding@Home at a local dentist's office as well as on my home computers. There is even a version that will run multiple instances of F@H depending on the number of cores your Mac has.