Thinking about making the switch for the Macbook

Some of you may remember that I've been looking into buying a new notebook for a few months now, but I ran into having to save my money for some other things, such as my upcoming wedding (March '07)

My dinosaur HP is blue screening me at least once a day though, and I deal with fixing screwed up Windows PCs and Windows terminal server profiles/compnents/setups all day at work, so I get my fill of dealing with software and OS problems. I made the decision about a month ago to try to wait and see how long my old comp could take me, but I think it is about to die, and since the new Core Duo Macbook has come out, I am trying to figure out finances so that I can make the switch, with this configuration for $2085 after the student discount:

1.67ghz Duo
80gb 5400rpm
1g 677 DDR2 (2x512)
ATI X1600
Superdrive
all the other stuff included
iWorks
Office student/teacher for OSX

To me, it will be worth the extra cost to have something sturdy, lightweight (for its size and components), and EASY to use.....then again, I am a creature of habit, so the switch intimidates me a little bit.

:apple2: <----and this coming from someone who has sworn on many occasions to never succumb to Macs.....

 

This is an interesting question, I think there's definitely a value proposition to getting the MacBook if it can run both Windows and Mac OS X...but not being a Mac user I can't say much for this -- however we do have lewdvig (a user on this site) who owns a PowerBook and several PC machines that's working on an article he'll post in the next week or two that looks at this question specifically! $2,000 is a bunch of money, but if it's something that lasts 4-years (longer than some marriages unfortunately!) then it might be a good value proposition. Might want to consult with the fiance though, it'd be bad if you have to cut guests from the invite list because you don't have an extra $2K

 

I believe that if it's possible to run XP on the PB Pro it's worth it - I mean you've got two of the world major OSes in one notebook. However, I don't like Apple's steep costs for the average person - you're paying a premium price and not getting premium hardware. But still, the idea of running two OSes on one laptop is very tempting - I only wish that there was a host dual-boot software program.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060110...N0jtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

Confirms that it is possible to run windows on a Mac

 

O.K. now we know that Windows works on the new Macs, we only have one problem left - the dual-boot host software.

 

Windows vista yes, but windows XP currently does not support booting off of EFI. So that means XP Pro is no go as of right now.

 

However i read that gateway has media center edition PC's that run EFI and not BIOS...so you may be able to run MCE....

I am thinking about what you are thinking (to original topic poster)...I am looking for a notebook and the macbook seems really great...but i cant live without a few windows apps...

Also im afraid about software support...I NEED Photoshop...I NEED indesign...without these programs I am without a job >_<....and i dont know if the intel thing supports them...I'm waiting until march-ish..so i can see how the whole release works out and what reviews say..also to see if it runs windows...

 

I wouldn't actually be interested in dual booting, since I would be making the switch to just use the more user-friendly OS on my personal computer (which I mainly use for school anyway), so I am really not concerned with the prospect of dual-booting. The only Windows apps that I need are the Office apps, which they make for Macs.

Oh, and I definitely would be looking at using this computer for a LONG time (as long as it will last probably). I am going to be done with my bachelor's next year and starting law school the following year, so I won't exactly have the money to spend on anything in between, so the overall build quality is one of the most enticing elements.

As for the fiance.....she's cool with it as long as I actually make a decision and stop looking.

 

How much (in %) does the student discount take off?

 

The education discount (at least for the University of Central Florida) takes off what looks like 10%. It knocks the $1999 starting price down to $1799, and the price of an upgrade to 1gb of ram goes down from $100 to $90. Doesn't look like it takes anything off the student addition of MS Office for mac though.

 

Office is HIGHLY reduced for students. Even tho it might still seem pricey and unaffected by the discount.

 

Agreed.... I was just being greedy and hoping that they'd knock another $15.00 off the nearly half-priced $149.99 office student edition...

 

This is the only gripe I've got about Apple software - it's overpriced when compared with Windows equivalents. But you do get the better OS, so it's a trade-off.

 

Well, the good thing is that the Student/Teacher edition of Office is pretty much the only piece of software that I can't live without on my home computer, and it is the exact same price as the student/teacher edition of office for windows.

 

Well, I think that the Mac version is a little hard to use than the Windows version. Maybe it's just me though - I grew up on MSO not the Mac version.