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buying a macbook/macbook pro vs PC laptop.

E

ethan101

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 3, 2006
51
0
hi i am new to the forum and am a long time windows user. i am getting tired of all the problems with windows, mostly spyware, viruses and any pc i have had always runs well for the first 6 months then becomes so clogged with junk off of the internet that has no buisness being on my computer lol. before long just the start up of the computer takes 5 min.


any ways i am thinking about buying a laptop for the first time and i am hearing great things about the mac books and mac book pros. keep in mind that i have never used a mac before so i have the usual concerns that i am sure you are all use to hearing EG.

~if i buy a mac will i have compatability with downloads off the internet (because everything seems to be made to work with windows) so will i be limiting myself to programs.

~i use programs like shareza to download torrents off the web will i be able to do this still.

~if i get windows on my mac will i be vulnerable again to all those viruses and spyware

~is a mac really that much better then a PC (can of worms i know)

~i hear windows is comming out with a new version that will perform much like a mac (not be vunerable to spyware and viruses)

~between a mac book and mac book pro is the pro that much better for my uses?
i will be using the laptop for normal uses internet,watching dvds, being creative, may use it for navagation, and i plan on using it alot so it will replace my desktop pc and i will be traveling alot with it.

~i also want the laptop to be as wireless as possable (bluetooth, wireless internet, etc) becasue i will be using it outside of the house as much as i would be in my house.

~weight is also not a issue
any help you can provide would be very helpfull and this will not be the last time i am in here for more advice i am sure

Thanks alot

Ethan


so as u can see i am very new to the whole mac thing
 
ethan101 said:
hi i am new to the forum and am a long time windows user. i am getting tired of all the problems with windows, mostly spyware, viruses and any pc i have had always runs well for the first 6 months then becomes so clogged with junk off of the internet that has no buisness being on my computer lol. before long just the start up of the computer takes 5 min.


any ways i am thinking about buying a laptop for the first time and i am hearing great things about the mac books and mac book pros. keep in mind that i have never used a mac before so i have the usual concerns that i am sure you are all use to hearing EG.

~if i buy a mac will i have compatability with downloads off the internet (because everything seems to be made to work with windows) so will i be limiting myself to programs.

~i use programs like shareza to download torrents off the web will i be able to do this still.

~if i get windows on my mac will i be vulnerable again to all those viruses and spyware

~is a mac really that much better then a PC (can of worms i know)

~i hear windows is comming out with a new version that will perform much like a mac (not be vunerable to spyware and viruses)

~between a mac book and mac book pro is the pro that much better for my uses?
i will be using the laptop for normal uses internet,watching dvds, being creative, may use it for navagation, and i plan on using it alot so it will replace my desktop pc and i will be traveling alot with it.

any help you can provide would be very helpfull and this will not be the last time i am in here for more advice i am sure

Thanks alot

Ethan


so as u can see i am very new to the whole mac thing
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums. Now to your questions...(compatibility) You really aren't limiting yourself to any programs. Especially now with the intel chips more and more stuff is going universal everyday. Office and CS2 would run through Rosetta for now but they still RUN. For (torrents). Transmission works great. There are plenty more torrenting apps for mac too, so don't worry about that. (windows on a mac) if you do put a windows partition on a mac, your Windose partition is STILL suseptible to viruses and the such. (Is MAC or OSX really that much better than a PC) YES!!!! (Windose new version...or Vista) My roommate is running it....It's a cheap imitation of Tiger, and doesn't come close to the greatness that is OS X. For your uses a MacBook with maxed out RAM seems fine...I don't know what you mean by "being creative," but I think that computer would suit you fine. I mean iLife can let you "be creative," but so can FCP. So it depends on how creative you want to get. For what it seems like the MB with 2 gigs of RAM would be fine.
 
hey
I just switch from Windows to Mac and all I got to say that this MBP are a wonderful machines. I got mine last week a new MBP C2D 2.33 15'' beautiful.

about your question yes you can run Windows using BootCamp or Parallels im using Bootcamp and it works just great I havent notice a big difference between my desktop machine (that is Windows) and my laptop... I use it for 3D animation and Maya runs perfectly .... but I wish there were a better support for 3D applications in Mac OSX .....

About torrents Im not 100% sure ... maybe someone else can answer that one.

That OSX its better than Windows I can honestly say that yes ... I think OSX is such a robust piece of OS .... my only thing is that I use 3D applications a lot so I dont see to much an advantage in that field yet hopefully autodesk will realease a UB soon and it will run just as Windows for Video editing and sound Mac I think is the King and hopefully...

As far as I know you dont have to worry about spywares and all that s*** that drive you nuts in Win ...

so if I were you I will go a yes to a new Mac
 
Again, welcome to MR forums. I just switched to Mac and it feels like heaven. Everything just works, while some wireless networks doesn't work for me at the moment. Topgun pretty much said it all. I'd prefer Azureus for torrent handling. I'm still unsure of how to handle .rar files on a Mac. I would go with the MacBook (like my configuration or with a bigger HD than what I have) instead of the huge size of the MBP that turns me off in terms of portability. The coming soon Windows Vista are copycats of Mac OS X but I plan to give them a try since I have several things that are Window's picky (besides that, I give them no credibility whatsoever). In conclusion, I'd say it's the confidence and peace of mind you get that makes Mac a great computer :D .
 
ethan101 said:
hi i am new to the forum and am a long time windows user. i am getting tired of all the problems with windows, mostly spyware, viruses and any pc i have had always runs well for the first 6 months then becomes so clogged with junk off of the internet that has no buisness being on my computer lol. before long just the start up of the computer takes 5 min.


any ways i am thinking about buying a laptop for the first time and i am hearing great things about the mac books and mac book pros. keep in mind that i have never used a mac before so i have the usual concerns that i am sure you are all use to hearing EG.

<snip>
Click to expand...


Hi, I'm a recent switcher and I can honestly say that I won't switch back despite a few problems with my Macbook hardware. (2 replacements - I'm very unlucky!)

Macbooks truly are great machines, their design and build quality far exceeds that of any windows laptop.

If you are worried about compatibility you can always run boot camp and install XP. This was a real selling point for me, but once I experienced OS X I decided against installing windows, I have no compatibility problems whatsoever. MSN messenger, MS Office and P2P programs are all available on the mac platform.

Is OS X really that much better than Windows XP? The answer is a definite YES. OS X is a feature-rich modern operating system that is stable and suffers none of the security problems of XP. The ilife suite that comes with Tiger is also excellent- From the first time you turn on your mac you can edit HD video, make amazing photo albums and record music at near-professional quality.


Windows Vista is coming out soon, but the consensus is that it's not really all that different from XP. It offers better security and much improved search technology, but it still doesn't touch the integrated seamless experience of OS X Tiger which has had all these features and many more for a long time. You should also remember that Tiger is going to be replaced by Leopard (which is previewed on the apple website), which really does leave Vista firmly in the dust.

As you can imagine, I'd recommend that you get a mac. Choosing between a Macbook or Macbook Pro is your choice, both are excellent, but for the uses you've indicated, the cheaper MB should be more than enough.

You are unlikely to regret getting a mac. Good luck with whatever you decide and let us know how it goes.

Oh, and MB/P's are wireless and bluetooth enabled out of the box. One word of warning: don't expect to play games on MB (or most laptops for that matter), if you are a gamer get a PC.
 
Thanks

thanks for all the help everyone!!

i am going to do a little more rescearch and am 99.9% sure i will get a mac.

i just need to decide between a macbook and macbook pro.

i am thinking of getting a refurb but i may wait until the core duo 2 become available in a refurb.

thanks again.

Ethan
 
From my personal experience, I would never go back to a PC laptop. I bought a mac book pro and as far as I am concerned it is far beyond capable for the things that u said that u were gonna use it for.
The mac books are good, but I recommend the PROS.
As for running programs on them, I was the same way when I was first looking into the mac operating system, so far I have not really had any problems ith finding P2P programs or any other program for that matter that does not run on a mac computer.
With the adding the windows programs to your mac, yes you will end up having the same problems you have been having with spyware and all the other harmful programs.
Mac book vs the Mac book pro, it all depends on how creative you are planning on getting with your system? Also depends on if you plan on storing movies and music etc on the hard drive with out buying an external. Mac books are upgradeable to a point but with the Pros you can upgrade them to 2 GB of ram, 500gb of memory, and come with a radeon Graphics card already installed. Also has built in super drive (CD Burner, DVD Burner, DVD player etc)
Being wireless is no problem for a mac, they have the air port wireless in them, you don't have to buy no adapters or anything, it comes already install well to be exact every mac computer wether it laptop or desktop they all have air port.
Mac book pros are in my opinion one of the best laptops going. They are a little heavy but not to bad, graphics are crisp and clear, speakers sound great, comes in 3 models low end 15", high end 15" or 17" which is almost fully loaded.
I have a relative that works in a strictly mac store and they say that they do not see very many mac book pros being returned or anything so it is kinda hard to get your hands on a refurbished one, but if you go to anystore that sells them you can always see when the display model is being sold and usual get a discount on them.
Although its all your own preference.
What ever system you decide to go with, good luck and happy hunting.
 
If you know how to use windows, you won't have any problems with viruses, spyware, or unwanted programs starting up.

The problem is most people don't have the slightest idea how to use windows.

:D
 
masse said:
If you know how to use windows, you won't have any problems with viruses, spyware, or unwanted programs starting up.

The problem is most people don't have the slightest idea how to use windows.

:D
Click to expand...

I have to agree and disagree at the same time...I 'know' how to use windows and don't have any problems on my windows machines, that's not why I got a mac.

But you must admit that having to have your email set to plain text / all attachments stripped / blocking .bmp files (you of course know virii can be implanted in a .bmp image) / etc; (you get my drift) really takes away from the 'computing experience'. With the mac not having very many virii written for it (last one was in 2006 and affected iChat and that was only IF the user actually opened the .tgz file...) I feel comfortable enough to let my mail come in 'unstripped' Junk mail is actually stripped by default (I'm referring to the mail application that comes with MacOS not tbird or anything else 3rd party).

So, in retrospect I could enable everything on my pc...let all my mail items open with all content displayed...and for about 25 minutes I'd have a good experience, until my PC is brought to it's knees.

I also see that you use Linux...my company has supported linux for the past 9 years, we actually started out not doing Windows servers at all...Linux on the desktop is great but it takes a lot of work to get a 'new' computer running with all the bells and whistles. The mac feels like a very customized BSD/Linux install out of the box.

Milage may vary but that's my thoughts on this oh so controversial matter.



FWIW my company actively supports Linux / Windows...since this is my first mac that I'm writing this on I can't say that we support Mac yet, but I may look into it soon. I currently have XP installed in paralells on my notebook for my windows support.
 
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