We should go with the Mac in this case, right? (Please, no Mac/PC pissing contests)

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, at the end of the summer my wife is starting a new job as a faculty member of a university, and one of the things she gets as part of the deal is a new computer. She has desktops and laptops to choose from, but really only wants to consider a laptop. She has to tell them which one she wants within the next week or so.

These are the laptops available, and price is not an issue, i.e., she doesn’t benefit financially from choosing a cheaper system, because they won’t give her the difference in cash or anything like that.

Latitude D430

* Weight starts at: 3.0 lbs
* 12.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCD Panel Display
* Intel Core2 Duo Processor ULV U7600 (1.20GHz, 533Mhz)
* 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, (1GB integrated) 2 DIMMs
* 120GB, 8MM, 5400RPM Hard Drive
* MediaBase w/ 8 X DVD +/- RW w/Roxio, Cyberlink PowerDVD
* Dell Wireless 1390 Mini Card WLAN (802.11b/g)
* Dell Classic Nylon Carrying Case

Latitude D630

* Weight starts at: 4.37 lbs
* 14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCD Panel Display
* Intel Core2 Duo T7700 (2.40GHz) 4M L2 Cache, 800MHz Dual Core 
* 4GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
* 120GB, 9.5MM, 7200RPM (Free Fall Sensor)
* 8 X DVD +/- RW w/Roxio software and Cyberlink Power DVD, no media 
* Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card 
* Large Nylon Carrying Case

** Latitude XT**

* 12.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCD Panel Display
* Intel Core2 Duo Processor ULV U7600 (1.20GHz, 533Mhz) LED LCD
* 2GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, (1GB Integrated) 2 DIMMS
* 80GB Hard Drive, 8MM, 4200RPM
* MediaBase w/ 8 X DVD +/- RW 
* ??Internal 10/100 Ethernet and Internal 56K Modem
* Dell Wireless 1490 802.11a/g Mini Card 
* Nylon Classic Carrying Case

Comes with Laptop Docking Station and MediaBase, Only if Requested

MacBook Pro

* Weight about: 5.4 lbs
* 15.4 inch Wide Screen
* 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 4GB memory
* 250GB hard drive
* Double-layer SuperDrive
* NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB 
* Brenthaven Messenger Case

Assuming

  • she doesn’t need the tablet functionality of the Dell XT
  • this is going to be her main (read: only) computer
  • that she doesn’t really need a docking station
  • that she doesn’t care much either way about the operating system

this is really no contest, right? It has to be the Macbook Pro in this case, doesn’t it? Is there any reason, given the conditions i’ve described, not to take the Mac?

2

MacBook can run OS X, and if necessary, Windows.
Dell is forced to run Windows.

MacBook wins in a blowout!

3

The Macbook Pro seems like the obvious choice, especially if price is not an issue.

4

Sound like the Macbook wins.

The only thing I’d recommend checking is what computers most other people are using at the university. If she has to receive Microsoft Office files (word, excel etc) from other staff members and she decides on the Mac - she’ll need to make sure she either uses BootCamp (for which you’ll need a licensed copy of XP or Vista anyway, as well as the Mac OS) or probably MS Office for Mac. Having a Mac friendly Office suite is much easier than rebooting to use Windows - which is what you’d do with BootCamp.

You can use Apple’s Pages etc to open these but I find it’s not ideal. There is also some open-source freeware like Neooffice which will deal with Office files - but I find they have some format retention (lack thereof) issues and often run slowly. Other people’s MMV.
Congrats to your wife on her new job! Hope she’s happy there.

5

I’m not sure why you have phrased this in such a roundabout way. You will have to buy a copy of Microsoft Office for Windows if you buy a PC - you will have to buy a copy of Microsoft Office for Mac if you buy a Mac. It is a complete non-issue.

6

I think it’s a toss up between the Mac and the D630. I’m a Linux guy, myself, but I maintain the computers at a small research center that’s even divided between Windows and Macs (although I’m making inroads with Linux :)). From the specs you’ve listed, the systems aren’t that different (not enough information to compare performance of the video card, network card, memory bus speed, DVD, etc.). So, in my mind, for most users, it comes down to:[ul]
[li]The D630 is lighter. Not much, but every pound counts when you’re carrying it through an airport.[/li][li]The Mac has a slightly bigger screen.[/li][li]The Mac has an additional 130GB of hard disk space.[/ul]Some other thoughts:[ul][/li][li]Both have 4GB RAM. No advantage either way, unless there are extra slots and one of them will have a 64-bit OS.[/li][li]MS Office is the standard. While I’d recommend OpenOffice, it may not quite fit the bill (for varying reasons). I note that the 3.0 beta has just been released, which has an aqua build for Mac – no more NeoOffice necessary.[/li][li]Mac is *NIX (stability, less malware).[/li][li]The D630 is Windows (larger base, more general familiarity, even within the school’s Office of IT).[/ul]Now, I can’t believe I’m actually saying that a Windows machine might work out as well as a Mac – I think Windows is a crap OS. However, pragmatically, it works for most people (as long as you can get XP on it, I guess). So, it comes down to bigger screen vs. less weight.[/li]
And don’t believe the hype that Mac zealots will try to feed you…I personally prefer them to Windows, but really, that’s only because I’m familiar with Unix and can go low-level if it’s needed to fix things. Macs have plenty of their own issues. For the most part, my experience is that whatever a user is used to is what will work best for them.

7

Well, the Mac will come with Office for Mac on it, and i was under the impression that Word for Mac and Word for PC documents could be exchanged pretty seamlessly between the two operating systems. Is that not the case?

[QUOTE=Digital Stimulus]
[ul]
[li]The D630 is lighter. Not much, but every pound counts when you’re carrying it through an airport.[/li][li]The Mac has a slightly bigger screen.[/li][li]The Mac has an additional 130GB of hard disk space.[/ul]Some other thoughts:[ul][/li][li]Both have 4GB RAM. No advantage either way, unless there are extra slots and one of them will have a 64-bit OS.[/li][li]MS Office is the standard. While I’d recommend OpenOffice, it may not quite fit the bill (for varying reasons). I note that the 3.0 beta has just been released, which has an aqua build for Mac – no more NeoOffice necessary.[/li][li]Mac is *NIX (stability, less malware).[/li][li]The D630 is Windows (larger base, more general familiarity, even within the school’s Office of IT).[/ul]Now, I can’t believe I’m actually saying that a Windows machine might work out as well as a Mac – I think Windows is a crap OS. However, pragmatically, it works for most people (as long as you can get XP on it, I guess). So, it comes down to bigger screen vs. less weight.[/li][/quote]
The weight isn’t a big issue, at least not initially. Most of the “portability” she requires is the ability to take it to school with her in the morning, and to bring it home again at the end of the day. Her commute will be by car, so she’s not going to have to lug it around. We would, in the long run, like to get a smaller laptop for travel to archives, etc., but that’s not an immediate priority. I’ve even been thinking about getting an ultra-portable, like the Asus Eee.

The bigger screen is a selling point for her. Because it will be her only computer, she doesn’t want a really small screen. The 15.4" on the Mac is big enough without making the computer itself too large. The bigger 17" Macbook isn’t an option, but she wouldn’t want one that big anyway.

For anything she’s likely to do, 4Gb of RAM is likely to be more than enough. The heaviest load her computer will endure is probably some fairly light Photoshop work, and some Dreamweaver.

The larger on-board hard-drive is good, although not a deal-breaker. Hard drive space is so cheap now that it’s really easy to expand. We have a couple of Seagate SATA drives in enclosures at home, and the next purchase might be a proper NAS of some sort.

As for Office, i’m pretty sure the university will put Office for Mac on the computer. They’ve already told her that they have licenses for most mainstream software, and that if she has any special software requirements they would be happy to get them for her.

I think she will be quite happy with the fact that she doesn’t have to spend as much time monitoring anti-virus, firewall, and other anti-malware programs on the Mac. She’s a Windows user right now, and has had no malware problems for ages, but it will be one less hassle.

I completely agree with this. I think Macs are great computers, but i’m happy with a PC. My own computer (a few years old now) is a dual-boot XP/Ubuntu machine, and i love playing around with both of them.

My only concern about her getting a Mac is the issue of file swapping between us. As i said above, i was under the impression that Word docs created on Windows and Mac can easily be swapped back and forth, but if this isn’t true then we’ll need some sort of solution.

Also, i assume that Photoshop (.psd) files can be transferred between platforms, and can be opened and edited by Photoshop on either one. Is that true?

Finally, i’ve read a few cases where people with Macs and PCs have run into trouble setting up a home network. Is this still a problem, or will the two play together nicely?

8

Setting up a home network is not a problem - both Macs and PCs use the same networking standards now.

Photoshop compatibility should not be a problem, assuming you have the same version on both machines (e.g. CS3 <-> CS3).

Compatibility between the Mac and PC versions of Office is not a problem, unless she is using documents that have VBScript macros in them. Microsoft removed the VBScript support from the latest version of Mac Office. It is still possible to use the older version, or simply boot the Mac into Windows and use the Windows version.

However, these documents are fairly rare in the academic setting.

9

Yes, shouldn’t be a problem with file swapping in these instances. I work on PCs at work, and Intel Mac at home, and I can open Microsoft Office files and Adobe Creative Suites files interchangeably, no sweat.

10

Cool, thanks everyone.

11

Ditto, but for a different reason: she’ll need help from the uni IT staff, and if they have no idea about Macs, or about PCs, that will throw the decision the other way.

12

Swapping .doc files created on either system shouldn’t be an issue (although I’ve noticed that Windows machines sometimes are, or at least used to be, pickier about the .doc tag actually being in the file name; just add it if it isn’t there, problem solved). Bigger issues arise if you try to open, say, an AppleWorks document on a Windows machine.

13

I wasn’t sure whether there was going to be a lot of conference attendance or whether it was mostly a teaching school. From what you’ve said, the big screen is the deciding factor. She should go with the Mac.

There shouldn’t be any problem with networking a Mac. Unless you’re planning on doing something like an NFS share. And even if you’re using NFS, it’s been improved in the switch from Tiger to Leopard. Also, there shouldn’t be a problem with file types on different platforms, although I’m constantly surprised at how MS Office finds ways to bork compatibility.

14

I wasn’t contrasting buying Office suites for PC and Macs, I was contrasting using Bootcamp to access PC files (for which you’d need to buy a Windows OS and the Office pack) and using a Mac OS friendly program to do it (just the Office pack). I did this because the OP and the thread so far was leaning towards the Mac and I did not feel the need to weigh up the difference between the PCs and the Mac. I was working on the assumption that the MacBook being considered already has an OS factored into it’s price. I apologize if that was not clear.

15

There’s one key question that’s been missed: for what is she going to use the machine? If there’s some specialist software that she needs that only runs on one platform then that will determine her choice.

16

If she’s already a Mac person, get the Mac.

If the D630 comes with Vista, get the Mac.

If the D630 comes with XP and has a port for a docking station, get the D630 and the docking station.

17

If you get the Mac and your wife finds she hates OSX, she’ll still be able to run Windows on the machine (some people do use a Macbook as a Windows only device), if she get’s the Dell and it comes with Vista (you can still get XP for the machine, but Dell can apparently be a bit of dick about selling it to you) and she hates it, then you’ve got to get an XP disk (not difficult, many vendors still sell them), nuke Vista and install XP (assuming you want to have a single boot machine). This can be a bit of a pain. It’d be even worse if she likes the Dell and XP, but hates Vista and has to use Vista for work (possible, but unlikely) as then you’ve got to either listen to her complain about how bad Vista is (it isn’t, but that doesn’t stop people from hating it) or set it up to dual boot Vista and XP, which can be a bigger pain.

Were it me, I’d go for the Mac (even though all I have at the moment are PCs), simply because with a Mac you don’t have to worry about spyware and malware as nearly as much as you do with Windows. One issue that you might have, is if you wife loves Internet Explorer. There’s no OSX version of it, so she’d have to run Windows to get it, if she couldn’t bring herself to like Safari, Firefox, Opera, Camino, or any of the other browsers which run on Macs (Firefox, Safari, and Opera are all available for Windows, so your wife can test them out ahead of time), which will eliminate most of the security advantages that OSX offers.

18

Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that if you are running Windows on a Mac, then you do have to worry about spyware and malware and all that crap. For the times that you are running Windows, anyways.

19

You are correct. Any virus/spyware/adware/trojan that affects Windows will affect Windows running on Boot Camp or Parallels. I would advise not checking your e-mail in Windows, or at least limiting it to web-based e-mail, as those providers generally virus-check before they post the e-mails to your account. Also, disable ActiveX, Windows Messenger and try not to share too many folders with your Mac; if something goes wonky on Windows, it can affect whatever shared volumes or folders it can see. Without question, Windows requires anti-virus & spyware detection software.**

**It may seem like I’m a Mac fanboi, but programming on Windows machine pays my rent, so I think both OSs are great.

20

Absolutely true. But, if you’re using Parallels, the entire Windows installation is a single large file on the hard drive. Easy-peasy to back it up once you’ve done the initial setup, and if something gets clobbered or infected, you can just trash the original file and replace it with the backup.

Anyone used to tending to all of those anti-malware/spyware apps on a Windows PC will soon find themselve wondering what to do with the extra time on a Mac.

You’ll also be wondering what to do with the “extra” processor power that’s no longer being sucked up by those anti-spyware apps. :cool:

As for Office, I’ve had no problems swapping files between Mac Office 2004 and Windows Office 2003 or 2007, other than the issue of Windows playing dumb if the file doesn’t have a .doc or .xls extension.