I've finally had it with PCs. I'm sick of the problems and the crashes. My Dell Latitude D90 just crashed, my 2nd laptop to have a poor life-span in about 3 years. I've heard a lot of great things about the Mac, so I'm deciding to give the MacBook a try. I'm not sure which one I will choose (I know I don't have the budget for a Pro, nor do I need one), but I'm thinking of the 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo model (Priced at around $999 with my student discount). Any recommendations on what if I should upgrade with my purchase or what software I should purchase (I was thinking about getting iWork). Any suggestions or input would be great.

It depends on what you want to do.

Each of my students get CS3 so I recommend they spend a little more and get more ram than comes standard with the model you are looking at.

I think you mean you are turning away from the dark side... :ha:

Yeah, extra purchases really just depends on what you need to do with it. If you need any kind of office software for serious word processing, spreadsheets, or presentations, the new iWork is supposed to be excellent for the cost (not sure if you get a educational discount there, too).

The good news is that you can always go back and buy any software you need later on if you can find good free software on the internet that fills your needs.

Like communism, the cult of Mac has take over our educational systems.

This trend must be stopped!

Just an update, I went to the Mac store, bought the basic 2.0GHZ Interl Core, 80GB hard drive (I'll probably be buying a seperate harddrive down the line, so it seemed reasonable). I also purchased Microsoft Office for Mac, a 3-year warranty, and a printer, all for roughly $1,200 with discounts and rebates. Hopefully, I won't be going back to PC anytime soon.

I don't use my computer for anything fancy; schoolwork, presentations, music and video storage (hence the need to buy a separate hard-drive later), and internet. Pretty basic, so I think I made the right choice going with the more basic model.

Did you get a educational discount on Office below the normal $150? My uncle, who is a professor, got it for about $50 through his school.

Like communism, the cult of Mac has take over our educational systems.

This trend must be stopped!
:blah:

Have fun unplugging your "computer" every time it crashes .....

I am also in agreement with the TV space monster.

Did you get a educational discount on Office below the normal $150? My uncle, who is a professor, got it for about $50 through his school.


I got a rebate for about $50 bucks, yeah.

I think you mean you are turning away from the dark side... :ha:



my thoughts exactly

Have fun unplugging your "computer" every time it crashes .....


he'll be waiting a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time for it to crash

Have fun unplugging your "computer" every time it crashes .....

I am also in agreement with the TV space monster.

There's a "power" button on the back of the screen, right where your hand would normally go to move the screen...very effective for those EXTREEEEEEMELY RARE freeze-ups.

1) My macs have rarely ever crashed. Certainly never a "blue screen of death".

2) The few times it has crashed, I hold down the power button for a few seconds and it restarts.

in the VERY UNLIKELY EVENT THAT IT EVER FREEZES, just click on the APPLE up top and select FORCE QUIT

quit all programs and relaunch Finder and that should take care 0f it sans re-booting ...... other wise NEVER Shut Down your Mac (it likes to be on always) SLEEP is a very good thing