Mac questions

My Laptop took a dump on me and now I am in the market.
I would like to stay in the 1 grand range.
I don't run any hard core type of gaming.
I do run two different photo editing software packages.
I do surf the net and I work a fare amount on MS Word, Excell & Access.
I have a 12 year old and 9 year old who are budding computer users.

I am intrigued by the ease that you can create DVD's with the Mac software.

I have had several to mention the Macbook/Macbook Pro or even the Imac desktop.

I don't know a lot about Mac, but a buddy of mine says you can run two operating systems and one of them can be Windows and that pretty much any software I have should be compatible with with a Mac.

Anyone confirm this?

Also, do they ever offer deals on their products?

 

i've got a macbook pro laptop and i love it. macs are all intel-based now and use pretty standard hardware, so installing windows onto them is not that hard. in fact, mine triple boots between osx, windows and linux. but you prolly don't need to go that far.

mac has a program suite called bootcamp that makes installing windows very easy. however, if you're not gaming or anything, you could probably just use a program called "parallels" that lets you boot to windows inside of the mac os. programs like word, exel and acess would run fine using parallels.

the only problem would be finding one for a grand. you could get the cheapest laptop, but then i don't think it comes with the superdrive and a 13" monitor is way small. the macbook pro is like $2k. very nice machines, but probably more computer than you're looking for.

if you don't need it to be a laptop, then the imac is probably a reasonable choice. the mac mini might even be worth a look, but then you'd need to buy a monitor if you don't have one. might even need to buy a keyboard and mouse separately.

apple generally doesn't offer deals, but catalogs like macmall do -- if you buy extra stuff like memory. apple does offer discounts to students, tho. if you know any college students, they could probably find reasonable deals at their campus student store.

 

get the 20" iMac running 10.5... buy direct from apple.com and take advantage of the educational discount... if you're feeling up to it, get the 24"...it's badass... get the extended warranty too

iLife is awesome, built-in video camera, bluetooth, wireless internet connects to any network, remote control for DVD, Video, Music, and Photos...beatiful computer...one plug

connect any camera to it and easily sync cell phones to it, even mount it on the desktop.. no drivers or extensions to download...

i could go on

 

All done on Windows as well. Mac fanboys should just admit that they pay extra for a slightly thinner laptop that is pretty.

 

unless you really need osx for some reason (like the software you want only runs on it) then apple is really just a nice hardware vendor. you can definitely get a cheaper, equally powered pc, but then, you can also get a high-priced equally powered pc. you could probably spend the same money going to an outfit like alienware to get a comperable machine.

 

Thanks guys,

I am leaning towards the Macbook with the 2.2ghz and the DVD burner.

With the educational discount it is like 15 or 1600, which blows the budget but it seems like I would be set for a while with it.

I checked and a comparably equipped Dell or Gateway was in the same ballpark.

I can go the cheapy route, but I think I am pulling the trigger on this.

 

I wouldn't mind getting a MacBook so I could dual boot. I'd def. dual boot it with Windows, because I'm a MS nerd, but the ability to work with both intrigues me. I wish there was a way to install Mac OS on a regular PC.

 

macbook or macbook pro?

 

actually, i think you can. check out osx86 (google it). there's a whole hacker community devoted to getting osx onto pc's.

 

I pulled the trigger on the Macbook with the 2.2GHz Duo Core
120 SATA Drive, 2 Gig DDR2 memory, iWork 08 and the Apple Care

If not for Thanks giving being next week I would have it by Friday, I might still.