an important question about Macs (the computer) at Mac (the university)

dumbconsumer · 08-09-2010 at 09:35 PM

I'm considering getting a macbook, possibly from the mac store at mcmaster (i think it's called macmicro). My main reason for spending the extra cash is battery life. I was talking to my sister's friend, who went through uni with a macbook, and he said he often found that software provided in class supported windows only, and he had to go through a bit of trouble to secure mac versions. He was in engineering though (and at UofT), i'm in life science. Is this a viable concern? I'd love the reliable battery but don't want any hindrance to my studies.

I know there are ways to run windows software on macs, but my question is more of a general concern about Macs at Mac.

jhan523 · 08-09-2010 at 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dumbconsumer

I'm considering getting a macbook, possibly from the mac store at mcmaster (i think it's called macmicro). My main reason for spending the extra cash is battery life. I was talking to my sister's friend, who went through uni with a macbook, and he said he often found that software provided in class supported windows only, and he had to go through a bit of trouble to secure mac versions. He was in engineering though (and at UofT), i'm in life science. Is this a viable concern? I'd love the reliable battery but don't want any hindrance to my studies.

I know there are ways to run windows software on macs, but my question is more of a general concern about Macs at Mac.

My laptop lasts 7hours on battery and it's a Dell...

You can get a copy of windows and dual boot it on your Apple Computer if you need to. But being in Science, I don't think you need it at all. The only course I know that uses a program which might be windows only is Stats 2B03. But they have the program at the computer labs at McMaster.

dumbconsumer · 08-09-2010 at 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhan523

My laptop lasts 7hours on battery and it's a Dell...

You can get a copy of windows and dual boot it on your Apple Computer if you need to. But being in Science, I don't think you need it at all. The only course I know that uses a program which might be windows only is Stats 2B03. But they have the program at the computer labs at McMaster.

I own a dell laptop presently, it hasn't been a fun experience lol.

jhan523 · 08-09-2010 at 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dumbconsumer

I own a dell laptop presently, it hasn't been a fun experience lol.

Lol, to each their own. I haven't had a single problem with my Dell laptop, but it's only been 1 year and 2 months.

goodnews.inc · 08-09-2010 at 09:44 PM

A Mac is my first laptop, and to be honest, while I don't have anything to compare it to, the battery life isn't "that" fantastic unless you dim your backlight to the lowest setting and have like one program open. This might include choosing TextEdit over Microsoft Word (TextEdit is Notepad for the Mac) and turning off your wireless card when you don't need it. That "8" hours doesn't exist.

I have a decent amount of tabs open, lets say 20 on Google Chrome, I'm running a chat client, I have Excel open and Quicktime is also open (no movie playing) and I'm at 1/2 my max brightness. I have 4 hours and 21 minutes left...however, in the 30 seconds it took me to type this paragraph, my battery life jumped down to 4 hours and 14 minutes. This was after 30 minutes, starting at a 98% charge.

I don't know how normal that is - it may be fantastic. But in a dim lecture hall, I'd like a bright screen and yes, I would like the ability to use a ton of programs simultaneously but that's just me. I've always been demanding of my battery/power source on any laptop I've borrowed, as well with desktops.

nerual · 08-09-2010 at 09:46 PM

I have a Mac, and the only software problem I've had was with stats2B03--the program is only for Windows. You can access it from the computer labs on campus (they're open all day), and you can finish the assignments in the lab timeslot anyways, so the program isn't required. If you find it's a problem, you can partition your hard drive to run Windows as well. I was in Life Sci 1st year, and then went into ChemBio

dumbconsumer · 08-09-2010 at 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhan523

Lol, to each their own. I haven't had a single problem with my Dell laptop, but it's only been 1 year and 2 months.

i think i killed it with overcharging, so uhh yea, watch out lol

dsahota · 08-09-2010 at 09:53 PM

Worst case you could dual boot as jhan said, or you could also use virtualization software like http://www.virtualbox.org/ , which is free. This software allows you to run a "windows computer" as a program within your Mac OS and you can install whatever windows software you like (although don't expect games to work well). The advantage of a virtual machine is that it doesn't require a reboot and you can still keep using your Mac programs in the background while you do work on the windows virtual machine. You will, of course, require a license key to install windows, but I'm sure you can acquire an old XP key pretty easily.

So while I'm not a huge fan of Macs, I don't think the limited possibility of a required software package being windows only should deter you from getting a Mac.

As a side note, if you check out windows machine that's priced at the same level as a Mac machine, you should be able to get very similar battery life. So in short, you'll very likely be fine with a Mac, but you'll also be able to find a windows machine that meets your needs. So go with whatever option you prefer.

dsahota · 08-09-2010 at 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dumbconsumer

i think i killed it with overcharging, so uhh yea, watch out lol

What happened to "kill" it?

Did your battery pop / explode? There were actually a bunch of recalls of a bunch of laptops (including Apple, Sony, Dell, Acer, etc etc) over bad batteries in the past couple of years. You may want to see if your model was one of those.

If the battery just stopped charging it may be because the current lithium-ion battery technology, used in 99% of laptops, is only good for 300-1000 charge cycles (depending on numerous factors). This is a inherent problem with the chemistry of the batteries. So if you were running down the battery every day, you should expect it to be down to about half life after 18 months, and pretty much dead after 3 years.

jhan523 · 08-09-2010 at 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dumbconsumer

i think i killed it with overcharging, so uhh yea, watch out lol

Your laptop must be pretty old... Dell now has the power diverted from the battery to the laptop directly when the batter is full. So it's impossible to overcharge the battery.

brendanp · 08-09-2010 at 10:40 PM

if your only reason for getting a mac is the battery life, then you could just get an extra battery for a pc and it would probably end up costing less.

changturkey · 08-09-2010 at 11:54 PM

I just bought an Acer 1830TZ that can get around 8+ hours of battery life; mind you, it's no powerhouse, but it was only $615 with tax and shipping. Has a full size keyboard, so it's not cramped like a netbook.

Tailsnake · 08-10-2010 at 12:28 AM

As everyone has already said, if battery life is your main reason for getting a Mac, your money would be better spent elsewhere. You can pick up a solid ULV/CULV laptop that boasts 10+ hours battery life for less than $1000 or you could get one of those insane Asus netbooks that boast 14 hours battery life and a near full-size keyboard for less than $400.

Macs are really only worth it for the excellent touchpad, the more user-friendly software, and the warranty/support. If those don't matter to you, save yourself $1000 and get a PC.

dumbconsumer · 08-10-2010 at 11:57 AM

This has been very helpful guys : D

Crzyrio · 08-10-2010 at 12:13 PM

I have a older mac and the battery life still goes atleast 5-6hours. The new ones are said to have 10hours with wireless so you should be able to get 8 hours out of it on normal use.

My program requires windows programs as well. Dual booting on the macs are so easy right now its not even a problem. If you get something like vmware its even better if your program dosent require much resources. You can switch screen between mac and windows.

Like someone said each is own..make sure you try it out before buying it. I recently had a friend who bought it and is the type of person that dosent like change. So she keeps bitching about having to learn everything over. You will have to spend sometime with it before you can use it to its full extent

EDIT: nicely done --> "an important question about Macs (the computer) at Mac (the university)" like the clarification in parentheses