Windows or Apple

[Banana Bar]

My daughter is in need of a laptop. She is just starting her GCSE work and her teachers are pushing the kids to get them. Some of her classmates have Mac books and a couple are using Windows based laptops. To a layman, why is she better having a Mac book ( as she thinks she is ) or is peer pressure playing its part. I much prefer the functionality of windows but I use it each and every day and think I may be set in my ways!

BB

 

[Lincs Lass]

Alot of schools now are want kids to have some sort of computer as most of the homework is downloaded instead of good old paper version .
If the school is pushing for kids to have laptops ,the school should provide them and not expect the parents to supply one .
What if the parents cant afford to buy one

 

[Badshot]

My personal opinion is that a windows based laptop will suffice, and it tends to be a fashion statement having a mac more than anything else.

 

[An Gof]

My daughter is in need of a laptop. She is just starting her GCSE work and her teachers are pushing the kids to get them. Some of her classmates have Mac books and a couple are using Windows based laptops. To a layman, why is she better having a Mac book ( as she thinks she is ) or is peer pressure playing its part. I much prefer the functionality of windows but I use it each and every day and think I may be set in my ways!

BB

Put it into farming parlance. Your daughter is just starting out in farming. She "needs" a tractor. Do you start with a Fendt or can you make do with a New Holland?

PS

I am an Appleholic it started with an iPhone, then an iPad, then a MacBook whilst away on business and now a desktop. Be warned it can be addictive

 

[Selectamatic]

I have a Macbook Air. I love it.

It's four years old, and has not skipped a beat, i can count on one finger how many times it has crashed, stopped, froze, failed in some way.

The whole thing is just, well, better than a Windows set up (which I have used in school, college, work etc etc)

The hardware is well nailed together an smartly finished, and it just performs as you'd expect.

There are a few quirky things on it compared to a windows set up, but that's just a matter of understanding it.

Chunky money compared to a standard windows laptop or similar though, but in all honesty I think it's worth it and my next laptop, should I need another, will be a Apple.

 

[Banana Bar]

Put it into farming parlance. Your daughter is just starting out in farming. She "needs" a tractor. Do you start with a Fendt or can you make do with a New Holland?

You're right, 939 reverse drive extra lights and a chrome exhaust ordered!

 

[Philip Watkins]

As much as it pains me to say it (everything in this house is fruit flavoured and won't be anything other) for school stuff she is probably better with a windows system. The online stuff schools use doesn't always play nicely on a mac. My daughter, doing A levels, couldn't do one lot of homework because no matter what I tried it just would not display the pages fully. I tried all different browsers on 3 different machines, even installed Java (against all security advice) spent a day trying to sort it before giving up.
Other than that I agree fully with @Selectamatic
My 6 year old MBPro had a new battery under warranty and is still as good as the day I bought it (secondhand of ebay). I've just put a new battery in my daughters 6 year old MBPro (bought from the Apple Refurb store) along with some extra RAM and swapped the HD for an SSD.

 

[sleepy]

If you spend the same amount of money on a Windows laptop as an Apple one, the Windows one will work just as good.

Most people compare a £300 quid Windows laptop to a £1000 Apple one, and then declare the Apple one is better. No sh!t Sherlock.

 

[Selectamatic]

If you spend the same amount of money on a Windows laptop as an Apple one, the Windows one will work just as good.

Most people compare a £300 quid Windows laptop to a £1000 Apple one, and then declare the Apple one is better. No sh!t Sherlock.

That's a good point actually.

 

[Boysground]

I have been through this in the last few years. I agree with @Lincs Lass that if the school requires the kids to have laptops they should be provided. My children were lucky as their school has enough desktops to mean a laptop is not essential they could both access the schools intranet from my home system. Although for various reasons both my kids had their own laptop.

The main issue I had was not apple/windows, it was the software, I had spent years avoiding spending any money and used Open Office software. This worked fine for me and should have worked fine with the school using Microsoft Office practically it was a pain for the kids. It was simple things like formatting being wrong and things not printing correctly. So I ended up buying Office365 just to make everyone's life a little more simple.

My advice is talk to the school and check what software you need. You will probably end up buying what your daughter wants anyway. Get something lightweight with a 13 inch screen and good battery life they are so much more portable. If there is a prospect of A Levels a laptop is essential so future proof yourself.

Bg

 

[f0ster]

the apple machine works flawlessly but you find a bigger range of software available for a windows machine, the windows based software (ms-dos) is every where, even biomass boilers use ms-dos as their software for the operating system, and if funds are limited you can easy get a copy of a program off someone for test purposes just to try. then if you like it you buy.

 

[sleepy]

the apple machine works flawlessly but you find a bigger range of software available for a windows machine, the windows based software (ms-dos) is every where, even biomass boilers use ms-dos as their software for the operating system, and if funds are limited you can easy get a copy of a program off someone for test purposes just to try. then if you like it you buy.

Windows hasn't been 'based' on MS DOS for about 2 decades. Windows 95, 98 and ME used DOS to boot up. Windows 2000 merged 98se and NT together, getting rid of DOS entirely.

XP still had DOS7 available, and many archaic industrial control system still run XP as a result. 64bit version of 7 finally buried DOS completely and now the only option is a virtual machine.

Apologies for the history lesson

 

[MrNoo]

Have Mac here for the least 5 years, as others have said, never missed a beat! Would never go back to windows based software again. After having windows stuff on 3 different laptops, each one of them suffering from hard drive failures etc etc, this was with mid price range machine up to top end and still broke after a year.
Mac seems less susceptible to virus's etc, loads quickly and I cannot fault it. You can partition it to run Windows if you like, as others have mentioned a lot of software is windows based as opposed to iOS.
Re price, yes it is expensive but if you factor in the price of a couple of windows based laptops, it is not a lot dearer.

 

[Notquiteretired]

My eldest has a mac book next one has a lenovo yoga touch screen laptop. For school I'd say the touch screen Lenovo Yoga wins hands down as the school has an Office365 subscription for all students and they mostly use OneNote in lessons - the pen/scribble works really well.
I have a mac book and waiting on the new M$ Surface as I also use OneNote for everything.

 

[Notquiteretired]

Windows hasn't been 'based' on MS DOS for about 2 decades. Windows 95, 98 and ME used DOS to boot up. Windows 2000 merged 98se and NT together, getting rid of DOS entirely.

XP still had DOS7 available, and many archaic industrial control system still run XP as a result. 64bit version of 7 finally buried DOS completely and now the only option is a virtual machine.

Apologies for the history lesson

What, no more autoexec.bat or config.sys? Long live cmd as real men don't use menus

 

[Clive]

You get what you pay for

Mac is a premium product and it's quality and reliably reflected in the price tag

For the same money you can indeed get a very big spec windows machine which is a better comparison but even then they often lack the build quality of a mac

But your daughter will mostly want one because they are much cooler than pc's

 

[Philip Watkins]

.... Lenovo Yoga wins hands down as the school has an Office365 subscription for all students ......

Office365 is available for Macs as well.

 

[Banana Bar]

You get what you pay for

Mac is a premium product and it's quality and reliably reflected in the price tag

For the same money you can indeed get a very big spec windows machine which is a better comparison but even then they often lack the build quality of a mac

But your daughter will mostly want one because they are much cooler than pc's

I bought a Mac book air. You were right Clive!

BB

 

[Feldspar]

When I was a student there were very good discounts on Macs for those in (just further?) education.

 

[An Gof]

I bought a Mac book air. You were right Clive!

BB

No.1 Dad