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Old 07-22-2009, 10:42 AM   #48
Russic
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Originally Posted by McG View Post
this is a great thread and i never thought that i would post in it...but here goes.

I am a die hard PC guy...and that isn't going to change any time soon. it is just the way that it is. however...given this approach, i have generally not spent any time following affaires d'apple. and now i am looking for a little cp wisdom. truthfully, i'm embarrassed to be asking such ridiculous apple questions because i live and breathe on the pc platform. in fact...i have been a "friends and family" helpdesk for years and years which i am hoping to move away from.

My 17 year old is starting university in the fall. We all know about apples on campus and the "cool thing" but this is about functionality. she doesn't need to be a star on the computer...she just needs the darn thing to work. so, for her...assuming portability, what does she really need? if i said 15" laptop to start...i see quite a few options. what would a student need? i can see that i need to buy mac office it looks like...but what other software does a guy need out of the gate? any recommendations?

also, can this laptop coexist on my home network? i have a windows home server that is awesome...and of course the other computers connect to that. but will the apple? will it play xvid/.avi files?

now the tricky part. i have about 3 seniors all waiting for what i find out about the apple for my daughter. i get the fact that apples are super duper easy to work with especially if you don't need all of the funky stuff that gives folk grief on windows. so, would the same specs apply for the seniors as the student's gear? secondly, am i about to relinquish my role as friends and family helpdesk support? i am quite reluctant to help acquire a platform that i can't support over the phone. if anyone has any seniors stories that they are able to share...i am most interested. the seniors in particular are limited in what they want to do...its the usual basic stuff...email, pictures, browsing, the occasional computer game, and banking...the usual stuff. my gut tells me that the apple is right in that niche spot. am i right?

thanks to everyone...and very sorry for jumping in.
Fanin80 nailed it ... your daughter qualifies for education pricing. Seeing as Apple products very rarely ever go on sale this is a great thing. I actually convinced my coworker to buy a 13" macbook pro for $1300 yesterday using the education discount. The $1100 model is very solid too ... my coworker just thought the aluminum casing and speed bump was worth $200 (I agree).

I probably won't offer any real insight that hasn't been dealt yet, but here goes:

You probably don't need the 15" model ... the 13" in my eyes are more ideal for campus living as you'll be hauling it around all the time. Might as well save some $ if you can.

Software shouldn't be a huge deal. It comes with most everything she'll need, but you're right, you'll need an office suite of some kind. You can get Office for Mac at a reduced rate (again, education discounts), but I'd recommend looking into iWork. It costs about $70 and I have yet to encounter a compatibility problem yet. I know some CP users have had issues with it in the past, but I've been running it here at work (I'm the only mac in the whole building) and I have yet to run into a problem.

As far as compatibility goes for media (or anything) I had the same concern when I made the switch. Staff at the UofC can get a copy of Windows XP for $5, so upon delivery of my mac I walked over and bought a copy of it. I intended to install it once I hit that wall that the mac couldn't handle. It's still in my drawer a year later as I haven't needed it yet.

I recommend your daughter download a media player called VLC ... I find it will play damn near anything.

Don't worry about your role with IT support. You're a computer guy and in my experience elementary knowledge of how to do a google search is the most important part. I have yet to run into a problem that google hasn't solved (and believe me, when you first make the switch, you have a ton of "how the hell do I do xxxx?" problems). I'm currently planting the seed in my parents minds to get a mac. The number of issues they have with their pc is incredible and I'm getting tired of dealing with those issues over the phone simply because I'm just not that good at that kind of thing. I'm NOT saying that Apples don't get problems because they do, but in my experience the problems are less intense and daunting.

Don't forget ... CP is your best friend for Apple stuff. I learned almost everything from posters here.
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