[Keys767]

Hey.

I'm thinking of getting a Macbook to take to college/out and about. Never used Mac before. What's the general opinion on them? Bad points or things I should consider? And what's everyone's reasons for hating the Mac OS?
Also, how much RAM/CPU would be ideal for it if I was just using some media software, a little graphics software and maybe some cd burning?

Thanks.

[Dave Hybrid]

Being a PC forum you will probably get a biased view here.

[Keys767]

Yeah probably, but what i'm trying to find out are the actual problems people seem to have with Mac. So people here would probably be itching to point out the problems.

[Cew27]

macbooks are great my brother has one the most hated thing about mac are its users, there so smug and think they have made the right choice and we are all wrong, the mac os is faster than windows but more restrictive, i don't like its navigation and it is a bsd derivative
however you can put linux on a mac, if i were to get a macbook i would dual boot ubuntu and mac osx

[SocialWarfare]

I not sure if that many games are developed for them though, if its gaming you are into?

[Keys767]

I'm not really looking for gaming, so that wont be a problem. I was thinking of dual booting it - I dual boot my other computers, so I'll probably be doing that. What exactly is more restrictive about the OS? Will it affct me if i'm just using it for graphic design, web design, media etc.?

[Cew27]

well i dont like the ui, i find it hard to navigate
its restricted because everything is propitiatory and there are less applications for osx

[katana]

a person thats used a mac their whole lives using the Mac OS will find it hard to use windows, and vice versa. As for your dual boot situation, you could install the dualboot then run it through parallels so you can have both os's running at once, and if you don't want to do that, there is boot camp (i think thats what it called) and that runs windows programs on the Mac OS.

[Cew27]

but with windows and linux and all the rest everything is layed out sensibly and named appropriately, for setting in windows go to control panel for settings in linux/gnome go to system menu. you can pick up a windows/linux pc and grasp it easily but with a mac i found it hard

[caggles]

I personally really like macbooks. I don't have one for myself because I can't afford one, and the games I like are all Windows games. My dad has one, he loves it, and all of the people at school who have them love them as well. It's a great machine all in all, and if you don't like the OS, you still have the option of sticking Windows on the Macbook. If you like media (movies, music, photos and the editing of all of the above) then a Mac is probably a good choice. If you're a gamer, maybe not so much. For school stuff, like an office suite, the Mac stuff is just fine, though I myself would suggest OpenOffice.
I'd suggest trying it out a bit first. If you know anyone who has one, mess around on their computer for a while.
Plus, as a student, if you go to an Apple Store and show them your student card when you buy it, you get a good discount and a free i-pod :) At least, that's what they were doing last year, when my dad bought a Macbook (though he got the discount pretending that it was for me :P)