[dadude1083]

Hello everyone. This is my first post, and the reason I signed up on these forums is because I am getting a Mac for Christmas/College. Big deal right? Well, I have always been a Windows user, and I didn't want to tell my mom to send it back and be hurtfull, so I decided to try and learn up on it. From what I have seen (and that is very little), it seems as if the Mac is actually alot more user friendly. I heard it can't get viruses? Is that true? I never knew why companies didn't use Macs, and instead went for Windows (which I know alot about).

I have never tried one before mainly because I am a big gamer, and I have never liked Mac's gaming abilities (emulating for the hardware or whatever). But now I guess you are able to run Windows on your Mac? Does that come standard with new Macs, or is it a software application? If so, what one, because I would be all over that right away.

Well, thanks for any feedback!

P.S. Here is the email she sent me regarding it.

DATE SAVED: 11/01/06 - 05:16 PM Pacific Standard Time

SAVED ITEMS:

Part Number: S2514Z/A
Product Name: AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook
Pro/PowerBook (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll
Unit Price: $349.00
Quantity: 1
Net Price: $349.00
Estimated time to ship: Within 24 hours

Part Number: Z0DP
Product Name: MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.16GHz
Options:
065-6617 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
065-6619 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
065-6624 160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
065-6625 SuperDrive 6x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
065-6632 MacBook Pro 15-inch Glossy Widescreen Display
065-6627 Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
065-6628 Accessory Kit
Unit Price: $2,274.00
Quantity: 1
Net Price: $2,274.00
Estimated time to ship: 3-5 business days

SUBTOTAL: $2,623.00

[imacmatt09]

Ok lets go in order for all you questions.

1. OS X is very user friendly
2. No it cant get viruses well not very many im sure theres a few threats out there but not easily found
3. Companys do use macs, they are mainly used in photo editing, recording and video editing though
4. You can run windows through boot camp which is free to download off the apple website. You must own a XP SP2 single disk to install it. There also is the non free version that is called paralles which you can run along side with os x with out restarting.



To sum this all you your a lucky man having that mbp.

[PowerBookG4]

Originally Posted by imacmatt09

Ok lets go in order for all you questions.

1. OS X is very user friendly
2. No it cant get viruses well not very many im sure theres a few threats out there but not easily found
3. Companys do use macs, they are mainly used in photo editing, recording and video editing though
4. You can run windows through boot camp which is free to download off the apple website. You must own a XP SP2 single disk to install it. There also is the non free version that is called paralles which you can run along side with os x with out restarting.



To sum this all you your a lucky man having that mbp.

All good responses...
I will say this though: I think that you should not use boot camp for the first 3 weeks and use your other computer for gaming, use your mac with osx on it for 3 weeks.. get use to it with osx.. If you put windows on it, the second you decided that you want to do something but don't know how to do it on osx you will run to windows and you will not learn. So my advice is go at it for 3 weeks, then install bootcamp that way you have the best of both worlds on your computer and yet know both of those worlds.

[eric]

have you taken delivery yet?

i would hope that your mom would want you to be honest with her and i'm sure she would want you to enjoy the present (especially if she's plunking down over two large). so if gaming is a real issue, you may want to see if you can swap it for something from dell or alienware.

[dadude1083]

Originally Posted by PowerBookG4

All good responses...
I will say this though: I think that you should not use boot camp for the first 3 weeks and use your other computer for gaming, use your mac with osx on it for 3 weeks.. get use to it with osx.. If you put windows on it, the second you decided that you want to do something but don't know how to do it on osx you will run to windows and you will not learn. So my advice is go at it for 3 weeks, then install bootcamp that way you have the best of both worlds on your computer and yet know both of those worlds.

I never thought of it that way. That is a good point, and I will deffinetley keep that in mind!

Originally Posted by eric

have you taken delivery yet?

i would hope that your mom would want you to be honest with her and i'm sure she would want you to enjoy the present (especially if she's plunking down over two large). so if gaming is a real issue, you may want to see if you can swap it for something from dell or alienware.

I thought about that for along time, and thought the Dell XPS or an Alienware would be great, but I am an iPod fan/digital imaging/wannabe programmer... so ease of use would help. Thats why I want to learn Mac!

Speaking of which, I couldn't get my T.V. turned up fast enough to hear what the newest Mac commercial regarding C++ programming regarded. What was that about?

[traded]

It just breaks my heart to hear someone expressing anything but euphoria about getting a beautiful machine like that. I know you must be grateful, but WOW......Anyway, you wont/shouldn’t have much time for gaming in college.
Good luck.
-d

[dadude1083]

Originally Posted by traded

It just breaks my heart to hear someone expressing anything but euphoria about betting a beautiful machine like that. I know you must be grateful, but WOW......Anyway, you wont/shouldn’t have much time for gaming in college.
Good luck.
-d

Well, I don't drink/party so I have alot of free time.

What kind of graphics cards do Mac's normally use? It says nothing about what model, so I am SOL untill it shows up for finding out.

[rman]

If you do what you should in college, you will not have much free time.

[fleurya]

For gaming you should definitely go with Bootcamp as Parallels won't work (from what I've read elsewhere on here). The Windows programs through Bootcamp won't run quite as fast as on a comparable native Windows machine, but the difference is minor. (from Cnet reviews/comparison tests(

I think the graphics is ATI x1600, but not sure as I'm on another ocmputer right now. It's not the fastest availible, but it'll definitely get the job done for any games available now.

If you want to pass any feeling of disappointment, mention how your games, uh, I mean college homework, would be much more viewable on a 30" cinema display!

[fleurya]

oh, and I second PowerbookG4's advice, which is what I'm doing now. The toughest thing I've run into so far was how to install an application and get the .exe in the applications folder, but the big graphic "how-to" pictures in the window helped me figure it out in about 10 seconds.

[xstep]

Originally Posted by dadude1083

Speaking of which, I couldn't get my T.V. turned up fast enough to hear what the newest Mac commercial regarding C++ programming regarded. What was that about?

Look at the Gift Exchange commercial here.