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I was in a sort of similar situation of "okay, I'm an OSX user but there are some Windows applications I want to run; I'll just install Bootcamp on my Macbook and switch whenever I want to use a Windows program" and after awhile ended up just staying on Windows 100% of the time. Virtualization is probably the better thing to do if you want to go that path but I'm not sure what the options are like on OSX, you might want to look into that before buying if you do decide to get a Mac.
Also, after getting used to Windows I really dislike using Macs; some of the design quirks like no delete key on the keyboard, the worse folder navigation, and the fact that you have to use expose/mission control to switch between windows effectively slow things down a lot. If you're used to OSX, these things won't be as big of a deal but it'll probably take some time to adjust.
Mac is prettier, PC can do a fair amount more. Having used both, I'd say stick with what you have now so you don't have to adjust to anything new. It's always annoying to accidentally press the wrong key when I'm using a different machine.
Confirming that you can get free Microsoft stuff at a lot of schools if you're a CS major :) And it's pretty easy to install 2 operating systems on one computer or set up a virtual machine to run another OS; I'm typing this through a Linux Mint 12 virtual machine through Virtualbox, which is free and runs on both Windows and Mac. I have used Windows 7 virtual machines for a while and the only program I can't get to run in a virtual machine is League of Legends, so unless you're a huge LoL fan you can get a Mac and still run Windows programs well. Not sure how well a Mac virtual machine works, and you would have to buy the Operating System, but it should probably work well. Also, if possible, you might want to talk with a professor at your college and see what software they tell students to use for video editing homework, and if it is exclusive to one operating system. They might have a particular program they want everyone to use that can only run in Windows or only in Mac.
Forget about the simple "Mac vs PC" debate for a moment. Let me just offer you some general laptop buying advice that many people might neglect to take into consideration.
First, the "specs" of the laptop are not as important as they seem. What I mean is, the computational performance of the particular laptop you wish to buy is not inherently related to the manufacturer (OEM) or brand. A Dell is not always better than an HP, and an Apple is not always better than a Dell. The individual electronic components (ie CPU, GPU, RAM) are all made by a handful of separate manufacturers. So in terms of "Mac vs PC", the specific combination of hardware found in Apple computers can be found in any other brand.
As far as these hardware components actually go, the main thing you need to consider are your computing needs. If your primary use is simply browsing the web, you don't need very much. Any dual core processor and integrated video will be plenty fine. Gaming or Video Decoding / Encoding may call for a discrete GPU / Quad-Core CPU respectively. I am not speaking in absolute terms, of course, but you get the idea. Despite this, it is all too common for people to grossly overspend on a new laptop in this respect.
Instead then, the real factors that are truly different from laptop to laptop are the following:
Battery Life: Ah yes, this one is probably the most commonly discussed. As laptops are portable devices, battery life is often a great concern for many. However, I personally think it is a little overplayed. For one thing, at least in my experience, a majority of the places that I have brought my laptop (a Lenovo T400) had places to plug in. Additionally, battery life has come a long way. Some laptops today have a battery life of more than 10 hours. However, do keep in mind that more powerful laptops, as you would expect, consume considerably more power. I am not trying to say that battery life isn't a consideration that you should make, it certainly is, but you shouldn't be hellbent on finding a laptop with as long of a battery life as possible. Pick one that is right for your expected use after you consider all of the following factors.
Design and Build Quality: The design of the laptop is probably what varies most from OEM to OEM, but this can have a surprising impact. This is because the electronic components inside the casing can be very fragile (such as a magnetic hard disk drive) or prone to overheating (your CPU or GPU especially). So, although you might scoff at some laptops for looking too bulky, the added space makes it easier to cool the hardware. In general though, laptops have relatively poor cooling, so for this reason they can never replace a good desktop system gaming wise, at least until components become extremely efficient. Eraddd has already explained the effects of design and build quality in great detail in his earlier posts.
Human Interface Devices (Mouse, Keyboard, Display): These aspects right here are perhaps the most underlooked of them all. Many OEMs enjoy marketing computers based on their internal specs (eg. CPU speed, Hard Drive capacity) but don't go into much detail about the display, mouse, or keyboard. These three things, known as human interface devices (HID) are how we interact with our computers at any given moment. Since they are physical, it is far easier to perceive the difference between two laptop displays than their "responsiveness". You should get the general idea by now, and you do not need to read the following if you are satisfied with this explanation (as what I am about to post can get very technical), but for now I will explain each HID in more detail.
First, keyboards. I personally think this is THE most important aspect of any laptop, period, though that is just my opinion. The most important quality to look for in any keyboard is "tactile feedback". That is, your ability to physically sense when you register your keystrokes. This can be critical in increasing your typing speed and therefore your productivity! For some perspective, the old Mechanical IBM Model M keyboard, which has deep key travel and springy switches, has very high tactile feedback, while the touchscreen keyboards in most smartphones and tablets have none. Most laptop keyboards use scissor switch technology and thus fall somewhere in the middle. The main thing I look for here is minimal flex (that is, the axis of the keyboard remains stiff when large force is applied) and deep key travel. Since we are talking about Macs vs PC's, I frankly don't think that Macbook keyboards are very good in this regard, as the depth of their key travel is low. Lenovo (previously IBM) Thinkpads on the other hand are famous for their great keyboards. It was certainly one of the biggest reasons why I bought mine.
The display is probably the second most overlooked component, and also the most complicated to discuss. All laptop displays use LCD technology at the moment, though there are different implementations of it. The most common is twisted nemantic (or TN). While cheap, this technology is also very primitive, and has the characteristically poor vertical viewing angles that many people associate with LCD's today. Additionally, they provide relatively poor color accuracy. TN LCD's can only represent colors at 6 bits per channel (whereas the sRGB color space, which is what most computer applications, is 8 bits per channel). Computers internally represent colors as a function of intensity of the primarily colors, Red, Green and Blue based on a number of bits. The more bits available, the greater number of colors the computer can physically represent. To compensate, a 6-bit LCD can emulate 8-bit content by means of dithering and frame rate control.
Thus, superior LCD technologies, such as In-Plane-Switching (IPS) and Vertical Alignment (VA) were implemented to address the problems of TN panels (LED, which many consumers know of, is not a new technology, but a more energy efficient backlighting technique). While boasting greater color depth, viewing angles, and contrast ratios than TN LCD's, they are also very expensive and regrettably rarely used in laptops. IPS has become somewhat more common in tablets due to the need for better viewing angles. In general, you are pretty much stuck with a TN panel in almost all laptops, with a few exceptions (ie some Thinkpad X220's). However, that is not to say that the panel type by itself tells the whole story. Even among TN panels, there are varying degrees of quality.
Still on the subject of displays, screen resolution is probably the other most important aspect of displays. This has significant implications as greater resolution increases your screen real estate. It certainly is for me, I use a 2560 x 1440 LCD with an IPS panel for my desktop, and I honestly still crave more pixels! In any case, the general rule of thumb here is that you should always opt for the highest possible resolution that you can a) afford and b) view comfortably, as resolutions that are too high can cause some eye strain if the screen size is small. To sum it up, this is one area where I think that Apple does comparatively well in, as well as some of Dell's XPS models, whereas my T400's display, while having a good resolution relative to its screen size, has atrociously low black levels, viewing angles, and general color quality. Check reviews on the internet for some comparisons
Finally, I will briefly discuss the mouse. Laptops have two types of built-in mice, one being touchpads and the other being trackpoints. Touchpads have a varying degree of feel and sensitivity that is difficult to qualitatively measure, and honestly it really comes down to a personal preference. Trackpoints are a more interesting type of interface in that they can provide a much higher sensitivity, making it easier to move the mouse pointer at higher resolutions. Trackpoints are much less commonly used than Touchpads however, in fact I think they might be exclusive to Lenovo's Thinkpads, though I am not 100% sure. Again, a lot of it boils down to personal preference, which you will have to examine yourself.
Anyway, I think that should cover all of the basics. I personally have always preferred PC's, but you should take all the considerations I mentioned above into account when trying to determine what would be best for you. Hope that helps.
??? Linux is great for programming but the OS is not bad either, since it was unix based and some other tech stuff I have no idea about but Articuno64 told me it was good so I'm going with his word.
Buy an Asus laptop, they are cheap, pretty and powerful. They also separate your data and OS partitions, which is a nice plus.
If you aren't staying in comp sci, there's no real issue of what OS you get, its more of "Which laptop has the best battery life for X amount of dollars" thing.
??? Linux is great for programming but the OS is not bad either, since it was unix based and some other tech stuff I have no idea about but Articuno64 told me it was good so I'm going with his word.
assuming you're talking about mac os x, he was correct -- mac os x is essentially a shiny, $2000 version of freebsd. the fact that mac os x is nonfree means it is inherently worse for hacking.
Bass has the best post in this thread. Seriously if someone who doesn't know anything about computers was reading this, they would literally be confused.
@auramaster What all can I get free? Thanks for the advice; I'll look into what editing programs I may need to use.
@Bass: Thanks for the detailed post. I for one really like the "trackpoint" mice (more commonly known as "pointing sticks"). In addition to the Lenovo ThinkPads, they're also available on Dell Latitudes, Toshiba Tecras, and HP EliteBooks (possibly more too).
Many of you have mentioned gaming in your posts, so FYI, I don't really play games on my computer (the only thing I play on it is Dream World :p).
Also, I do have an iPhone 4S (which I really like), but as far as I know, there's nothing significant that I can do between it and a Mac that I can't do between it and a PC.
@auramaster What all can I get free? Thanks for the advice; I'll look into what editing programs I may need to use.
@Bass: Thanks for the detailed post. I for one really like the "trackpoint" mice (more commonly known as "pointing sticks"). In addition to the Lenovo ThinkPads, they're also available on Dell Latitudes, Toshiba Tecras, and HP EliteBooks (possibly more too).
Many of you have mentioned gaming in your posts, so FYI, I don't really play games on my computer (the only thing I play on it is Dream World :p).
Also, I do have an iPhone 4S (which I really like), but as far as I know, there's nothing significant that I can do between it and a Mac that I can't do between it and a PC.
Going back to Adobe Premiere, Adobe is doing a massive discount for educational users at the moment, using the code SAVE80EDU. You can guess what this does (it's on top of the existing educational discount) - CS5.5 Master Edition (including Premiere Pro) comes in at $180, and CS5.5 Production Premium (just the video stuff) is $90.
Going back to Adobe Premiere, Adobe is doing a massive discount for educational users at the moment, using the code SAVE80EDU. You can guess what this does (it's on top of the existing educational discount) - CS5.5 Master Edition (including Premiere Pro) comes in at $180, and CS5.5 Production Premium (just the video stuff) is $90.
I spoke with the computer store at my college today, and they told me that there is currently one and only Adobe educational discount, which is Design Standard for $200, Design/Web/Production Premium for $350, and Master Collection for $600. They also told me that Premiere Pro was only available with Production Premium or Master Collection, and handed me a flyer that seems to confirm this.
I also visited the Film department, and they told me that Film students are taught editing with Final Cut. I asked if this meant I would need a Mac, and they said since they have video labs available on campus, having a Mac is not required but is recommended so you can work at home.
I was just about to buy a PC too. Looks like I may have to reconsider, unless I could get Final Cut running in a VM, but I highly doubt that such an environment would be suitable for video editing.
I spoke with the computer store at my college today, and they told me that there is currently one and only Adobe educational discount, which is Design Standard for $200, Design/Web/Production Premium for $350, and Master Collection for $600. They also told me that Premiere Pro was only available with Production Premium or Master Collection, and handed me a flyer that seems to confirm this.
Not here to give any PC vs. Mac input, but the above quoted statement is incorrect. I jumped on the Adobe deal myself and got the discount described by Wichu.
I agree with basically everything Bass said, except that I think that Lenova keyboards are atrocious. My dad got a Lenova in like 2008 and I had to do some of my homework, the keyboard made it really annoying to use and later on the keys would actually break...
I actually really like the keyboard on my Macbook Pro! Maybe I'm doing it wrong.
I also like Macs because I can get a huge discount through my mom, who works for Caltech (I could also get the discount on a PC, but it wouldn't be customizable).
i had the honour of using an apple macintosh today in my school's history computer lab. i noticed that the keyboard is fuck awful (i had forgotten bass' post). also, the mouse has the wrong number of buttons.
on the plus side, it made me feel like a millionaire.
i apologize if you got the wrong idea, but "better than apple" is not the same thing as 'good' or even 'passable' -- especially when it comes to hacking.
If you're willing to deal with the confusing OS and get a bunch of cool software in return, a Mac is worth it. However, when Macs break, they break. Hard.
I agree with previous posts that Dells function better as paperweights then computers.
Sorta related, I got a new Macbook Pro yesterday and I need a way to run pc apps on it (most of them are pretty simple and don't require too much memory). What do you guys recommend for a laptop with a 2.4 GHz processor and 4 GB of memory?
If you're switching to film and they're all taught using Final Cut Pro and you're expected to use it, just get the Mac if you're going to work on it at home as well. You cannot run Final Cut Pro on Windows and you should definitely not try to virtualize video editing software. It's crash-prone as it is running natively.
I agree with basically everything Bass said, except that I think that Lenova keyboards are atrocious. My dad got a Lenova in like 2008 and I had to do some of my homework, the keyboard made it really annoying to use and later on the keys would actually break...
I actually really like the keyboard on my Macbook Pro! Maybe I'm doing it wrong.
I also like Macs because I can get a huge discount through my mom, who works for Caltech (I could also get the discount on a PC, but it wouldn't be customizable).
I will acknowledge that keyboards with deeper key travel are somewhat prone to certain issues down the line if you neglect to clean them often, since it is quite easy for dust and other particulates to get stuck below the keys over time. Frankly, many people don't take good care of their keyboards. Even I am no exception, my desktop keyboard (which is mechanical) had some annoying chattering issues until I went through the trouble of plucking out all of the keycaps individually and giving the thing a thorough cleaning. That said, I have owned my T400 for 3 years and I have yet to experience any problems with the keyboard, despite being dirty.
Honestly, while I do think keyboards can be a personal preference, I type considerably faster on ones with greater key travel compared to one with less (eg. on my brother's Macbook Pro) since they feel more tactile.
