Why should I buy a portable Mac rather than a PC??

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My friend is an Architect and he is going to be on the road for work .... His boss will pay him a portable .... I try to make him change for a portable Mac...

He ask me for some arguments to convince his boss, since Portable Mac is more expensive than PC and the use for the portable will be primarily for autocad and microsoft office programs only...

The big deal here is that, he want to use Garageband and other programs that is only on Mac.. but how to make his boss pay for something not related to his job?

PLEASE NO GOOFY COMMENTS like «Mac is better than PC»... We already know that and it won't convince his boss!
 
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Since it's a work computer and one of the primary uses is AutoCAD, I see no reason for him to get a Mac personally if only because he wants to use Garage Band.
 

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Since it's a work computer and one of the primary uses is AutoCAD, I see no reason for him to get a Mac personally if only because he wants to use Garage Band.


Agreed. That was almost to the letter what I was going to post! Sure you can run AutoCad with Bootcamp or Parallels and XP, but really just Office and AC, get a PC.
 
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Actually from experience Autocad does not work in Vista, that is one good reason and they do not support Vista yet. How's that for an argument
 
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So it's desperate!?!?
I told my friend that since you can use window on a Mac, it would be great for him to have one!!... it seem that it wasn't a good argument....

So, I think is going to have a PC....

Thanks guys for your advices!.... I was hopping!... snif! ;)
 
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Actually from experience Autocad does not work in Vista, that is one good reason and they do not support Vista yet. How's that for an argument

Yeah, I heard about that.

On another note, Im a college student currently studying architecture. I bought a Mac as my computer because of its form factor, and very good operating system. Although I do depend on BootCamp in order to run AutoCAD, I dont regret my purchase because I simply fell in love with all of the great features in OS X.

PS AutoCAD also works on Parallels, and rather well. I've also tried extruding and making various objects in 3D and it works well, although I believe that it can crash if you try create and render too many 3D objects, since Parallels does not currently support 3D acceleration. Sketchup also works with very good results, the only time my computer began to slow down was when I rendered shadows.
 
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The counter to this argument is that a Macbook, in addition to being a very portable, powerful, and well designed machine is also the most versatile notebook computer on the market today. It not only runs Mac OS X but will also run Windows, either dual-boot with Boot Camp or simultaneously with Parallels. A windows computer any model will not.

It's price point is also very competitive with any consumer Windows laptop on the market as well. Go out and price out a Dell with similar features. Be sure to include the camera, built-in wireless, bluetooth, and external monitor graphics capabilties. You'll find the Macbook to be an equal or superior in most instances.

So, as I like to say, you can have your cake and eat it too. I use my Macbook for personal computing (garageband, photoshop, web browsing, etc.) and for work stuff (I'm an Oracle DBA, and on the Windows side I can use Parallels to do all of the Windows GUI DBA tools similarly to how one would use Autocad on the Windows 'side' as well as access my employer's VPN.) I have an employer supplied Windows notebook, but don't need to lug it out with me if I have my Macbook.

Plus there are things a boss might not consider when thinking about work capable functions, such as video iChat video conferencing. I've used that extensively to keep in touch with other people with Macbooks, or even others who have webcams.

All in all, as someone who has more than 25 years in the data processing industry a Macbook is one of the most pleasurable, intuitive, and productive tools I've ever used. I've run the gamut from Sun workstations to early DOS/Windows versions, later Windows incarnations, and big-iron mainframes. The Mac has come of age with its Intel heart and multi-OS capabilities. So far I've convinced about five people to make their next personal computer a Macbook, and all of them have been thrilled with the world of possibilities it has opened to them just from having all of the options available both from the Mac OS world, and the Windows world. For me, personally, I've never been this enthralled with a piece of computing kit in all my career. Take that as you will.
 
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Since it's a work computer and one of the primary uses is AutoCAD, I see no reason for him to get a Mac personally if only because he wants to use Garage Band.

Agreed. That was almost to the letter what I was going to post! Sure you can run AutoCad with Bootcamp or Parallels and XP, but really just Office and AC, get a PC.
Agreed again.
Boot Camp is not an option. That is only intended and designed for occassional use of Windows.
If you need to run a heavy-duty app like AutoCAD, then forget Parallels and BootCamp.
Use the right tool for the job... a Windows-based computer, not a Mac.
 
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(I always worked on a Mac never on a PC .. so this is why I ask this question)

...Some persons writing about bootcamp on the last answers ... (I suppose this is a software to use on a Mac to use window's softwares?). My question is, if you buy a new Mac and we suppose that we can use window on it... Autocad should run as well or similar as a PC without any other softwares... NO? :)
 
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If you need to run a heavy-duty app like AutoCAD, then forget Parallels and BootCamp.
Use the right tool for the job... a Windows-based computer, not a Mac.

Respectfully, I am going to have to disagree. With BootCamp a recent Mac IS a Windows based computer. As such I would consider it the perfect tool for any job.

Of course if the job required, perhaps, rendering a 5 minute CGI scene from an upcoming movie where a render-farm was needed then I'd suggest a dozen Linux based beige boxes clustered together but we're talking about one application here.

Now maybe a Mac won't fit into an IT support structure where all the boxes need to be uniform so they can be cloned back to a specific configuration, but that's an artificial situation created by corporate IT bureaucracies.
 
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Respectfully, I am going to have to disagree. With BootCamp a recent Mac IS a Windows based computer. As such I would consider it the perfect tool for any job.
And I will respectfully disagree here. The Mac with BootCamped WinXP is not perfect in this situation.
The need for AutoCAD would require certain keyboard combinations and mouse clicking abilities that the Mac portable's keyboard and trackpad alone, cannot offer. These could be countered with some third-party add-ons, but even then, it still lacks.

To simplify things, and further explain why BootCamp is not the answer to all of a person's Windows issues, consider this little parable:

The Bike and the Boat

You are standing dead center on the shore of the lake. You need to get to the exact opposite side that you are on, to reach a cabin.
You have two choices of transportation to get there, a mountain bike and a rowboat.

Having ridden professionally, you are an accomplished bicyclist and would have no problem riding the bike around the lake to get to the cabin.
You don't like to go boating without a motor, and it is a bit awkward for you. You would much rather use the bike.

Now, you not only need to reach the cabin, but you need to transport some cargo as well. Four large crates and there is also a deadline to meet. Well, the bike isn't the best option for this as there is no cart or other means to move the cargo. The boat has plenty of room to move it all in one shot. Plus, using the boat will allow you go straight across the lake instead of traveling around it.

Remember you don't want to simply use the boat on its own... you want to use the bike, so you rig up your bike to turn the oars as you operate the pedals, combining the two modes of transportation. After all, you prefer and would much rather use the bike anyway. The bike then allows you to use the rowboat as you ride your bike, best of both worlds, right?
Not really... it is awkward and clunky and takes more work to set up to make it usable as a mode of transportation.
So...it really isn't the most ideal situation you've created there, is it?
No, it isn't ideal. Wouldn't it have been simpler (and much smarter) to just use the boat on it's own?

Sure you would have rather used the bike (Mac), but it simply wasn't the best option. The steps needed to "make" it the best option (BootCamp) were tedious and didn't make it a smart option at all.
The boat (Windows computer) was the best option and tool for the job, yet you chose to alter the bike (BootCamped Mac) to get the job done.
It would be much smarter to use the boat alone, especially if you have to do this on more than one occassion.
 

bobtomay

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D3, have to say I really enjoy reading your pragmatic responses to computer purchase questions.

Have never understood the philosophy of pushing one item or way of doing something over another without the consideration and understanding of which will work best in a particular situation.

edit: deleted the rest when I realized it was really too long. Think I have to learn to shorten some of my responses and no one really comes here to read about life opinions anyway.
 

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