Afew Q's before I switch

With all this hype about Boot Camp, and all the new software that essentially make Macs into PCs as well, I've become more and more interested in buying a mac as my next computer instead of a PC. But first, some questions:

1: I play games. I enjoy games. I see Macbooks with Radeon X1600's in them, and Core Duos and think to myself "Man, I wish my PC had those kinds of specs". Will a Mac with this hardware, using Boot Camp run newer games as well as a PC with the same hardware? If not, how big of a loss are we talking in performance?

2: I'm a Computer Science student. I make software, for PC, for Linux, for whatever the prof demands. Am I going to run into problems with this? Or will windows/linux remain blissfully unaware that I'm secretly compiling the software inside a Mac?

3: And while on the subject of programming, I read recently about some new software (forget its name, of course) that allows one to compile source code developed for PC to mac and linux. Was I dreaming? And if not, what was its name? (must research it more!)

4: Warantees. If I buy a warantee for a Mac, is it worth it? Some warantees I've bought have been wonderful, very good service, fast repairs or easy replacements. I've also paid too much for warantees and later only gotten service by threatening a lawsuit.
Any Mac Warantee horror stories?

5: Am I going to discover 6 months from now that I've royally screwed myself by instead buying a Mac? Because really, my friends will have "I told you so"s ready. And I'm a student, so I cant exactly just buy a new PC.

My Thanks to anyone who can answer any of these questions.

1. It will run them exactly the same as a similarly configed pc
2. Depends on the language, you can't do .NET or Visual Basic in OS X but C, C++, ADA, Lisp, Perl, Squeek, SmallTalk and just about any other language will work fine
3. OS X on intel mac's has Rosetta which can run programs programmed for PPC architecture on the intel architecture, is the only thing I can think of.
4. I haven't heard of anybody not getting the service they need with AppleCare
5. I switched to mac's after my Jr year of HS (now a Jr in college) and haven't looked back once (CS, Econ double major)

trpnmonkey41 said:

1. It will run them exactly the same as a similarly configed pc
2. Depends on the language, you can't do .NET or Visual Basic in OS X but C, C++, ADA, Lisp, Perl, Squeek, SmallTalk and just about any other language will work fine
3. OS X on intel mac's has Rosetta which can run programs programmed for PPC architecture on the intel architecture, is the only thing I can think of.
4. I haven't heard of anybody not getting the service they need with AppleCare
5. I switched to mac's after my Jr year of HS (now a Jr in college) and haven't looked back once (CS, Econ double major)

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Wow. I spent more time writing my questions than it took to get replies. Thanks trpnmonkey41.

Now I've gotta break it to my friends (Nerdy nerdy PC guys) that I'm looking into buying a Mac. Feels like I'm coming out to them or something. (Not that there's anything *wrong* with that)

Tratta said:

Now I've gotta break it to my friends (Nerdy nerdy PC guys) that I'm looking into buying a Mac. Feels like I'm coming out to them or something. (Not that there's anything *wrong* with that)

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That's the way most people are taking my switch, and I don't get my Macbook for another week. Why, this evening one of my Fraternity brothers gave me flak for playing around on a Mac in one of our computer labs on campus. I'm so excited, and I know I'll be so much more productive on a mac - you will too.

When everyone sees the stuff you make in iMovie, Garageband, iWeb and published all your videos, podcasts, video podcasts, movies, songs, and all that jazz, they'll probably switch themselves. :robot:

Neale said:

That's the way most people are taking my switch, and I don't get my Macbook for another week. Why, this evening one of my Fraternity brothers gave me flak for playing around on a Mac in one of our computer labs on campus. I'm so excited, and I know I'll be so much more productive on a mac - you will too.

When everyone sees the stuff you make in iMovie, Garageband, iWeb and published all your videos, podcasts, video podcasts, movies, songs, and all that jazz, they'll probably switch themselves. :robot:

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yeah I'm getting my macbook thurs. I cant wait for garage band it looks soo much better than any Windows music based software I've delt with

Devikman said:

yeah I'm getting my macbook thurs. I cant wait for garage band it looks soo much better than any Windows music based software I've delt with

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Be sure to visit www.apple.com to watch some of the product tutorials, that way when you get your Macbook you'll be primed and ready to go! Plus, it'll give you something to do while waiting for your laptop!

Well, as a computer science student, you'll want to learn as much as possible about as many operating systems and languages as you can.

With a macbook, you'll be able to run all 3 OS's very easily on state of the art hardware: Linux, OS X & Windows XP all run here - no other computer you can buy will give you this ability.

Most "power-user" computer guys I know either buy a Thinkpad or a mac. Nowadays the mac is nearly always the only machine people consider, since it can be used so flexibly.