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Public education sector - mac or windowS?

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All of this talk about Mac + Boot Camp seems silly. When i was forced to work on a Mac years ago I had my adviser purchase VitrualPC. Dual-boot seems horribly inefficient, just run a VM. I currently have about a handful of various Linux VMs (and i run Windows primarily). Isnt there a Windows <--> OSX variant?
 
IGBT said:
mac's are a novelty. and apple dumped their proprietary chip set and now use Intel. Don't hobble your kids. PC is what the world and WORK PLACE uses.
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Not quite a novelty as you can run 95-99% of workplace tasks on an apple, however your point is still valid.
 
Acer Timeline + SSD = done. Cheap and surprisingly good, and the SSD will make it snappy and less likely to suffer from any minor banging around. If it dies, you can buy another one, stick the SSD in, and be back off and running, and STILL cheaper than a Macbook.
 
She's a longtime mac user so she must have already been very comfortable with OS X. If budget is not a problem get the new MBA. Set a bootcamp partition for Windows and run it through a virtual machine for when it's absolutely necessary.
 
Bateluer said:
Agreed, I don't see my Air holding up to much punishment.




Thirded. Despite what Apple and hipsters think, the world runs on Windows. Sure, you can dual boot or use a VM, but how tech savvy is your wife? If the district is using Windows, odds are, they're set up for Windows, managed with Windows, and have documentation for their Windows based products. If that's the case, getting Mac would simply be a pain in the neck.
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the backbone of the western world is Z/OS and if it wasn't for *nix your windows PC wouldn't be on any network.
 
if she likes Mac's get her a MBP while they still have optical drives. she can always install windows on it via boot camp or virtual if she needs it
 
After using both bootcamp and parallels on my MBA, VM is soooooo much better. It really is an awesome product.

As far as the topic at hand, buy whatever she's comfortable with. Through VM, citrix, or using a computer at work she should be able to do whatever she needs to do. From there it's just whatever she is more used to and productive on.
 
I love virtual machines, but how is a VM better than a bare metal install where you never have to even see MacOS? I really like the bare metal install of Windows on my Macbook Pro.
 
IGBT said:
PC is what the world and WORK PLACE uses.
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Some people said that in the '90s and I spent several years using Windows 3.1 and 9x/Me.

It totally prepared me for working in the "real" world because, you know, those are COMPLETELY THE SAME as Windows XP.

Oh, wait, my workplace uses Macs. Never mind.

Cross compatibility is so good and so much crap is web based anyway, platform choice only matters for idiots who don't know what they're doing.

Learn how to use a fucking computer. All of the above. If you don't know two ways to do something, you're doing it by rote. If you're doing it by rote, you shouldn't be doing it.

Teachers especially shouldn't do shit by rote, because they're the poor bastards that have to teach it to children. Something something why it works something something not just how something something.
 
yinan said:
I love virtual machines, but how is a VM better than a bare metal install where you never have to even see MacOS? I really like the bare metal install of Windows on my Macbook Pro.
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Boot Camp drivers aren't the greatest, and power management sucks on Macbooks running WinXP on bare metal. Mine runs cooler with WinXP in a VM running on top of everything else than it does with just XP idling.
 
Windows.

Macs I've dealt with seem to have too many little weird problems that it seems that they just shouldn't be having. Don't forget about the stingy warranty and needlessly expensive repairs if something isn't covered either.... No thanks.
 
The system I work for uses Windows workstations and Novell (blecch) although we do have an iPad infestation underway.
 
Hmm, I use vmware myself but find it a bit cumbersome on a laptop for some reason. I haven't used bootcamp since leopard - what is "bare metal windows?"
 
If you want to spend more money and be smug about getting shinier plastic, go apple. If you want a good laptop, maybe Lenovo or Toshiba ... if you want a cheap laptop, Acer or Hp

hell, get a cheap laptop and also a Kindle Fire ....
 
I say Mac since thats what shes used to. IT doesnt really matter what the school district uses but there is a good chance they will use either and possibly both. Macs fell by the wayside in public education but as of now Macs are being used by more and more school districts.
 
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freedomsbeat212 said:
She'll be working as a public school teacher (k-6, working on details) and I wonder, generally speaking, would a windows pc be a better bet? I'm almost 100% certain that there's some weird propriety web application used in the industry that's IE's only, so a mac seems like a terrible idea - am I correct? We prefer apple for various reasons but is pc the way to go?
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Boot camp = best of both worlds

lots of devs here that run MBP's but boot into windows for corporate work.
 
BurnItDwn said:
If you want to spend more money and be smug about getting shinier plastic, go apple.
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They're not made out of plastic anymore. They're machined aluminum, and will boot up quite happily after being used as a murder weapon. (Lid closed, of course.)

In the build quality department, they're on par with pretty much anything short of a ToughBook. (DammitIwantatoughbooksomuch.)
 
BurnItDwn said:
If you want to spend more money and be smug about getting shinier plastic, go apple. If you want a good laptop, maybe Lenovo or Toshiba ... if you want a cheap laptop, Acer or Hp

hell, get a cheap laptop and also a Kindle Fire ....
Click to expand...

You know, I have to see teacher culture before diving in (by the way, it's my choice because she gave me the decision)... I have a few teacher friends and they all drive middle class flashy cars (convertibles, ford mustang, vw passat) while I always thought teachers drove used saturns. Wonder if a mac in the teacher's lounge would be considered pretentious or if it would blend. I <3 apple but I'm still wondering about proprietary edu software or if it's all web based these days. I think she'd be annoyed switching back and forth so an ultrabook might be the answer (and I find the lenovo one pretty sexy).

But, yeah, I've never owned a Windows laptop that's as functional, well built, and well engineered as my macbook air so I'll forgive your "shinier plastic" bit as smug ignorance and not just stupidity.
 
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