Apple Mac running MS Office or a PC/MS based Laptop?

[LightningCrash]

Have her fondle a new MacBook Air and see if she likes it.

They're $999, so they're not obscenely priced, and there's really nothing like it for the price.

Otherwise I would recommend a Thinkpad X120e w/ 4GB of memory. You're looking at <$500 for that.

I'm a Thinkpad guy at heart but the new Macbook Air is the tits.

 

[greyBeered]

My current setup is Mac running Open Office plus the Apple office apps (Keynote, Pages). This is my Main Work Machine, and I am working in an all PC/Office information-rich environment, and have had no problems interchanging files. Nor problems with file shares, remote log in, etc.

It would be hard for me to want to donate the couple hundred dollars or so to MS for the Office Suite when Open Office works so well. The Apple apps are cheap (I think in the $90 range), and the fit and finish and usability is hands down far better than the MS apps.

</floydf>

 

[grizzly97]

At work we use mac's with window's 7 loaded on them. They run flawlessly! But, I'm in drafting and need the graphics capabilities of the mac. The pc's just froze up constantly, even when just trying to rotate a skid. Now, with my mac, I can rotate a model of the entire plant without a glitch!

 

[mons meg]

Just to be different...check out a Chromebook if you're not afraid of the "cloud". Also, a lot of the arguments put forth in this thread are from 1995. A "new" Mac with Windows 7 on it...is a PC.

 

[doctorjj]

Just to be different...check out a Chromebook if you're not afraid of the "cloud". Also, a lot of the arguments put forth in this thread are from 1995. A "new" Mac with Windows 7 on it...is a PC.

I think only one person mention running Windows on the Mac machine.

 

[david04]

FWIW, I'm a big mac fan, but my wife got a macbook pro and needed to run MS Office, so we got parrallels and windows. She's not very computer-savvy, so it was always difficult, figuring out where files were saved, etc. She would have been better off with a Windows PC. You can get Office for Mac OS, but it's not the same product as Office for PC. Maybe that's ok, but if you're going back and forth betwen that computer and a windows PC, that would be awkward.

 

[3inSlugger]

Sorry about the digression. My wife's Mac runs Office fine. We got for free since we are students from OSU. So definitely check out the school IT department where your wife is going. Macs will also run Windows and Ubuntu fine.

Right now my wife is having issues with her Mac connecting to home WiFi using WEP security but that will be solved.

Anyway, your lady will pick what she wants lol.

 

[rhodesbe]

 

[doctorjj]

FWIW, I'm a big mac fan, but my wife got a macbook pro and needed to run MS Office, so we got parrallels and windows. She's not very computer-savvy, so it was always difficult, figuring out where files were saved, etc. She would have been better off with a Windows PC. You can get Office for Mac OS, but it's not the same product as Office for PC. Maybe that's ok, but if you're going back and forth betwen that computer and a windows PC, that would be awkward.

What does she need that Office for Mac can't do?

 

[mons meg]

I think only one person mention running Windows on the Mac machine.

Was just pointing out that the hardware has been identical for some time now. There's no reason Windows 7 on a "mac" runs better than Windows 7 on a "pc".

Since OS X, all Apple really makes is a very nice UI. Kudos to them for that, but people need to decide for themselves how much more Apple branding plus their arguably superior UI should cost.