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jc0481

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 16, 2005
227
0
I am currently a computer science major at a trade school a very good trade school which has been here a lot of years anyways a lot of people in my classes have Windows laptops which I don't want to be another lemming so when I get a mac laptop can I still have a successful days in school programming away on my mac. I've noticed they use Microsoft Access sometimes any help would be appreciated.
 

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,742
155
If you know that you need to use Access then I am afraid to tell you that you're going to have to use Windows. Even though you can probably run it thru VPN, after you start linking tables and such, your queries will run super slow making it not even worth having a mac.
If you must use a mac, you can use MySQL or PostGreSQ.
 

grapes911

Moderator emeritus
Jul 28, 2003
6,995
10
Citizens Bank Park
Computer Science uses Access? I'm guess this is a database course. I can't imagine you having to take more than one db course. I'm a Information Systems major in college and my Mac has been fine for every class I ever had to take. My roommate is CIS and he has a mac. I never heard him complaining about needing a PC. Actually, we learn much of our programing in a unix environment. Having a Mac makes it much easier than having a PC. If the only programing you'll do requires a PC (such as VB .NET which I do happen to like), then you aren't getting a very wide variety of programing and that just sucks.
 

jc0481

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 16, 2005
227
0
I only have used access for one course so that won't be a problem so anyone that has had success that has used macs in a pc centric school
 

26139

Suspended
Dec 27, 2003
4,315
377
Yeah...

jc0481 said:
I only have used access for one course so that won't be a problem so anyone that has had success that has used macs in a pc centric school

It wouldn't be too wrong to say that EVERY mac using college student is in this situation...
 

HiRez

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2004
6,265
2,629
Western US
That is nuts they're using Access, for a school to be using a proprietary commercial database like that when great open-source, cross-platform databases like MySQL and PostgresQL are freely available (as Jessica said). Weird. Sounds like someone influencing procurement in the department has an M$ boner.
 

grapes911

Moderator emeritus
Jul 28, 2003
6,995
10
Citizens Bank Park
appleretailguy said:
It wouldn't be too wrong to say that EVERY mac using college student is in this situation...
I think it would be wrong to say that every mac using college student is in this situation. Some colleges, are very mac friendly. My college has 3 all Mac labs and 2 other labs with mac in them. My university even distributes software for both windows and mac. I'm sure there are many more colleges like this and many more that are even more mac friendly then mine. Though, I wouldn't disagree if you said most mac using college students are in this situation.
 

superbovine

macrumors 68030
Nov 7, 2003
2,872
0
HiRez said:
That is nuts they're using Access, for a school to be using a proprietary commercial database like that when great open-source, cross-platform databases like MySQL and PostgresQL are freely available (as Jessica said). Weird. Sounds like someone influencing procurement in the department has an M$ boner.

ROTFL....

It could be a class to get office certified....

Do you even know how school licenses ms software? If you did...
 

mduser63

macrumors 68040
Nov 9, 2004
3,042
31
Salt Lake City, UT
grapes911 said:
I think it would be wrong to say that every mac using college student is in this situation. Some colleges, are very mac friendly. My college has 3 all Mac labs and 2 other labs with mac in them. My university even distributes software for both windows and mac. I'm sure there are many more colleges like this and many more that are even more mac friendly then mine. Though, I wouldn't disagree if you said most mac using college students are in this situation.

My school is like this. We have Macs in almost every computer lab. The school bookstore is a full-fledge Apple reseller, and IT services will support students using Macs. That said, make sure you check with your school/professors. I see a number of EE majors (like me) with Macs, and several of the EE professors use PowerBooks, even so, some of the EE software given out is Windows-only (PSpice). Much of the computer science stuff is done on Unix machines, so no trouble having a Mac for that. However, I know some of the classes are based on MS products. Perhaps partly because CS majors (not other majors) get just about any MS product free, including Visual Studio and Windows.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
40,077
8,336
Los Angeles
Here's an idea, jc0481: Check your school's website and look at the computer support section. For example, find the description of how to set up your school e-mail.

If they include Mac support there, that's a good sign that other students use them, and professors won't be surprised if a percentage of their students have Macs, which implies that they won't require Windows-only software to be used. I really doubt they would require Mac users to buy a PC emulator for one particular class.

One other suggestion: Talk to the professor of the rumored database class who was rumored to be using Access.
 

iSee

macrumors 68040
Oct 25, 2004
3,540
272
You could run Access through Virtual PC (or similar--I know Access works under Virtual PC. Other options may work too)

Currently, though, that means you'd have to get a PPC-based Mac. And you'd have to shell out some extra $$ for Virtual PC.

Access will run acceptibly under Virtual PC on a new PPC mac (unless your course is "Practical Performace Optimization for Scaleable Databases" or something. But, in that case, I suppose you wouldn't be using Access...
 

jc0481

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 16, 2005
227
0
Regarding access

We haven't programmed in Access it was just an introductory course, you know reading the steps and doing it on those awful Dell desktop computers that the school has and that is the only course in Access that I know of. Thanks for the suggestions
 
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