What kind of laptop ?

[krzr3000]

What your paying for is a streamlined machine, good standards, and the right to use OSX.

...and the ability to fit in with the hipsters at the coffee shop

 

[snakeguy101]

i would say that macs are way better than speak-and-spells... oh, i mean PC's

 

[zackxf]

Yup, my sony Vaio had every sort of virus and spyware software installed, and still got viruses. Then after they were cleaned out, a year later the hard drive fried. Now it works, but my new MacBook (now they call it pro) that i got for xmas is much more reliable. I agree it is harder to find software, such as games and cracked apps, etc. but i find it great all around.

Hope you enjoy yours.

You could always pay for stuff.

less problems no, better support system yes.

macs also have less viruses yes, because less people use macs, so why would a hacker want to make a virus that infects such a small percentage of machines. you could easily get less viruses by using linux instead of windows. check out ubuntu it can do basically every thing windows can except its free.

be aware you pay alot more for the benefits of macs support system. also there have been alot of tests to see which is better mac or pc, in general the answer is go with the one that more comfortable for you to use.


i recommend a thinkpad as lenevo has a customer satisfaction % higher then even apple. im been using a thinkpad r60 for 4 years the only problems i have encountered are
1) lenovo installs alot of crap before you get it but it stuff that makes recovery of the operating system easier. i have no use for that tho as i like a moded version of xp.
2)faulty hinges after 3 years the hinges on my laptop broke(well the plastic the hinges are screwed into broke), probably from me always carrying it by the screen. i have fixed it my self buy running new screws thru the hinges.
3) the laptop charger cords fray with constant bending. ive gone thru 3 already(1 was a cheap knock off that burned out)(these things only cost 30 dollars so its no biggy).

personally this laptop has been the best computer ive ever used. also i use it heavily atleast 6 hours every day. and it travels with me to school and back. personally i think im kinda rough with it and problem 2 and 3 are my fault

edit:i would avoid vista if you have the chance as it can have problems with old technology. get xp if you want windows, i recommend downloading a nlited version off bittorrent(make sure you have a licensed copy of xp as i dont want to encourage any illegal activity , you probably have one your pc now). or try ubuntu linux has evolved so much its rediculous.

No, it is the architecture of the operating system. A lot of windows software needs administrator access rights just to run correctly, which is partly caused by bad programming practices from Windows based software developers.

...and the ability to fit in with the hipsters at the coffee shop

D: I forgot the most important part of owning a Mac.

 

[Chaitika]

I've been rocking an iMac for a few months now after being on a pc since they came out. I switched because windows is the biggest scam ever. It's not just that the windows operating system has been brought down to it's lowest point ever, its the attitude of M$ that really burns my ass. Here we have the richest guy on the planet, and he made his fortune by selling an operating system that runs like crap when you push it, is full of malicious code intended to make connecting any non-M$ software basically a nightmare of downloading more patches and fixes and if you want upgrades, you have to submit your PERSONAL computer to a very thorough search for what M$ considers to be pirated/stolen software.
And should you have something that M$ sees as not legitimate, they tag your operating system with a red flag and you're screwed for any future service packs. And if you're naive enough to leave your chip's ID number available for viewing, then they can tag your machine as well.
The great thing is that you PAY M$ to do this to you!

But anyway, now that I've got that off my chest , I switched so I could run adobe programs hard with very large picture files better and have a better monitor. It also runs HD video editing software very nicely compared to pc.

Most of the adobe programs were designed for the apple operating system originally. They simply run better on a mac.

If you don't like the idea of a new learning curve to figure out osx while you bang off term papers and such, stick with pc.

If you're not afraid to explore the machine and intend to run graphics programs, go with mac.

And no, I don't drink starbucks coffee or wear a beret like Rallysman wishes.


ps~ for those who worked with windows 98 wayyy back in the day, can you imagine running that version on new systems? It would be greased lightning.

 

[sostoudt]

No, it is the architecture of the operating system. A lot of windows software needs administrator access rights just to run correctly, which is partly caused by bad programming practices from Windows based software developers.

windows implemented user rights in windows for a while now, however they kinda been crappy about this even when implemented. but your right osx has a better architecture but not a perfect one.

but your lying to yourself if your saying osx 5%(or whatever it is) market share has nothing to do with the fact theres less viruses for it then windows(90% market share)

http://gizmodo.com/5101337/giz-explains-why-os-x-shrugs-off-viruses-better-than-windows.

 

[zackxf]

windows implemented user rights in windows for a while now, however they kinda been crappy about this even when implemented. but your right osx has a better architecture but not a perfect one.

but your lying to yourself if your saying osx 5%(or whatever it is) market share has nothing to do with the fact theres less viruses for it then windows(90% market share)

http://gizmodo.com/5101337/giz-explains-why-os-x-shrugs-off-viruses-better-than-windows.

I meant unix and unix like operating systems in general. Apache is/was the most popular webserver, but the (vast?)majority of exploits are against IIS. Even in windows vista, the default user has admin privileges, you just need to trick an ignorant/misinformed/stupid user into clicking accept. There are a little POC code out there for OSX, and even littler for linux I believe. Regardless of lower market share, it's a whole lot harder to do much more than maliciously screw up a users directory in unix than in windows, and I'd think the credit for finding something that could would be a pretty darn good incentive.

I will concede that the various distributions and kernel versions in production enviroments make it a bit of a moving target though to be able to target a single vulnerability. What, crackers had about 7 years to work on XP right?

 

[sostoudt]

i agree with you about unix based OSes. im just saying theres more profit to be made targeting larger market share, so if i was a hacker that made money by redirecting people to a webpage i would target the largest audience possible, them just being easier to hack is just icing on the cake.