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Mac User has to buy a PC - need advice
grandma joy | July 17 2017 | jacquej

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?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Education
KEYWORDS: computers; education; swordmaker; windowspinglist
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To: dayglored

acer has worked for me recently.


81 posted on 07/17/2017 4:39:11 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftists today are speaking as if they plan to commence to commit genocide against conservatives.)
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To: PIF; jacquej
Apple does not use cheap components which many other PCs use, so it will last longer and run better.

Apple also tweaks those components like no other PC maker to assure they work optimally together. Apple also has the component manufacturer tweak the component at design, manufacture, and assembly levels to maximize performance. Don't believe those people who claim that the components are the same as what is put in generic PCs. They aren't.

Almost all other PC makers buy whatever is cheapest among components and toss them into a box, so long as they will work "OK" and pushes it out the door. You CAN get the same level of components when you buy high-end PCs. . . but you will pay the same or higher prices than you will with the Apple Mac price to get that quality.

82 posted on 07/17/2017 4:49:50 PM PDT by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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To: jacquej

I’m a mac-a-holic since my first mac+. But I would follow the U of M’s advise. your son will spend too much time working around, accommodating, being lecture about a mac. just roll over bite the bullet and get a nice laptop he can take anywhere.


83 posted on 07/17/2017 4:55:09 PM PDT by morphing libertarian
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To: jacquej

“Use Boot Camp and install Windows on any Mac and it is Windows. “

This. I use a Macbook Pro as a Windows box.


84 posted on 07/17/2017 4:58:22 PM PDT by AppyPappy (Don't mistake your dorm political discussions with the desires of the nation)
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To: jacquej

“Use Boot Camp and install Windows on any Mac and it is Windows. “

This. I use a Macbook Pro as a Windows box.


85 posted on 07/17/2017 4:58:23 PM PDT by AppyPappy (Don't mistake your dorm political discussions with the desires of the nation)
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To: jacquej

Let him keep the Mac if you want, but get the most powerful version of Office 365 for Mac which has the full MS Office suite.

Ross is correct to want its students to know the Windows environment for the simple reason that most enterprise-level businesses use it. My wife works for a multinational and resents that she has to use a Dell laptop w/ Windows — until she calls me for help because her personal Mac can’t do something that she can do in two seconds w/ her Windows machine but didn’t know how. There’s a learning curve w/ gaining expertise in Windows but once achieved, the advantages are tremendous.


86 posted on 07/17/2017 5:35:18 PM PDT by nicollo (I said no!)
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To: Swordmaker
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.

What are you trying to do, change my mind? Your putting a nail in the coffin of my claims will not change how I feel about Apple. Bill Gates has been cursed from time to time by almost everyone that touched a Microsoft product, unlike the perverted cult of personality around Steve Jobs.

My bias goes way back to all the holier-than-thou Apple owners that continuously poor mouthed PC's. The comparison back then was laughable. I could do far more on my TI-99/4A than anyone could on an overpriced Apple. It is no wonder that Apple is taking over at NASA and IBM as you claim. The programs to indoctrinate children in schools with the Apple Logo started almost 40 years ago. Those indoctrinated children came of age and entered the workforce with the Apple logo stenciled on their brains. Is it a coincidence that full blown socialist indoctrination arrived in our schools around the same time?

My Dad got in on the ground floor of computing after World War II and retired from General Electric as a Sr. Computer Systems Analyst. He was part of the team that wrote code for the Saturn 5 Rocket inventory under contract to NASA. Open code PC's allowed me to program and work with computers as much as I wanted. As a Senior Technician at Verizon, I got to do that and get paid well for doing it. I have not kept up with the Apple products for the past fifteen years since I went into Program and Project Management and then retired. But actually I don't even care because, why would I want to learn anything about an Apple? I heard about an Apple being able to run Windows. Some further proof that Apples were inferior to PC's before that.

87 posted on 07/17/2017 6:41:37 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: jacquej

You might try looking into VMware Fusion, which will allow you to run Windows within your MAC. It actually runs as a program, under the native MacOS. It doesn’t require rebooting to switch back and forth between the Mac and PC.

VMware provides “virtualization,” which effectively simulates the hardware of a PC . VMware is best known for their server software, which allows a since physical server to host multiple other servers. For instance, at work we had 5 Windows server and 2 Linux servers, all running at the same time, on a single HP Proliant server.

Mark


88 posted on 07/17/2017 8:48:59 PM PDT by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
That's interesting for sure about the Mac expansion into that kind of use. A limitation for the Mac has been using the video coprocessor for number crunching. Is the engineering use largely for spreadsheet style work and CAD or extended into modeling and statistics?

Coprocessor use by Macs is still a bottle neck even if equipped with a Nvida card and Windows patition. Mac specific stuff of some sort just blocks direct access except in the context of the video function.

I've used desktop and later laptops extensively in process and manufacturing both in the office and in the field. During one 3 or 4 year period, I was destroying a laptop about every 6 months. The destruction came from ignoring the manufacturers specs for temperature, etc. Seems that leaving a laptop working in temp extremes, rain, snow, dirt, vibration etc. stuffed in a doghouse or a tarp tossed over it really isn't healthy for them. It really freaked out repair techs. LOL... Looked into getting a ruggedized, mil-spec laptop but not cost effective for my situation, just cheaper to junk the old and replace with new.

89 posted on 07/18/2017 7:34:24 AM PDT by Hootowl99
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To: oh8eleven
+1 that.

After the sale support is very good if there is a problem. I've owned many Dell laptops...new and used...and have not had any problems worth noting at all.

90 posted on 07/18/2017 8:24:23 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts ("Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." - Will Rogers)
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To: higgmeister
It is no wonder that Apple is taking over at NASA and IBM as you claim. The programs to indoctrinate children in schools with the Apple Logo started almost 40 years ago. Those indoctrinated children came of age and entered the workforce with the Apple logo stenciled on their brains. Is it a coincidence that full blown socialist indoctrination arrived in our schools around the same time?

WOW! You are delusional if you think that individual NASA engineers and corporate IBM all are choosing Apple Macs because they are brainwashed as children.

Open code PC's allowed me to program and work with computers as much as I wanted. As a Senior Technician at Verizon, I got to do that and get paid well for doing it. I have not kept up with the Apple products for the past fifteen years since I went into Program and Project Management and then retired.

What could be more open than UNIX™ which Apple converted all of its computers and devices to more than fifteen years ago. You revel in your ignorance and brag about how proud you are about being ignorant of these basic facts here, ,. . . and then preach to us from your position of total ignorance spouting untruths as if you were a fount of truth, when you've just admitted your claims are based on no real knowledge at all.

But actually I don't even care because, why would I want to learn anything about an Apple?

You say "You don't even care," but here you are, spouting your self-acknowledged, ignorant, uninformed, nonsensical, and not at-all useful to the topic, flame-baiting opinions in this thread. Why?

YOU ARE THE EPITOME OF THE APPLE HATE SYNDROME. You say "Don't bother me with facts, my mind is 'Out of business'."

You, sir, are exactly the type of IT person who works in this college's IT department. Ignorant and perfectly happy to remain so.

91 posted on 07/18/2017 10:56:17 AM PDT by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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To: Swordmaker
You, sir, are exactly the type of IT person who works in this college's IT department. Ignorant and perfectly happy to remain so.

So, at the last moment you finally understand.         ;^)

And yes, they were brainwashed as children.

92 posted on 07/18/2017 12:22:11 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: higgmeister
So, at the last moment you finally understand. ;^)

And yes, they were brainwashed as children.

Yes, I do finally understand.

In other words, you cannot conceive that anyone can make an intelligent, informed decisions about an actually superior product line, merely because YOU are totally ignorant about what you are talking about.

Willful ignorance is essentially stupidity, Higgmeister.

93 posted on 07/18/2017 8:20:21 PM PDT by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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