Technology MacBook good choice for medical school laptop?

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I want to get a nice small/portable laptop for medical school. I was about to order the Dell XPS M1330, which seems like a phenomenal laptop from the reviews I have read, but then I saw the estimated shipment date was AUGUST 30th. Since this is for school I would really like to get it before or not soon after school starts (starts August 8th). So now I'm considering a macbook.

I've never used Mac OSX before, but everything I've heard about it has been good.

I'm kind of worried though that I might face some problems not having a windows laptop since that seems to be what most people have (I still will have a desktop PC to use though).

If you all don't think this is a good decision please make other suggestions. My main requirement is small and portable. Trying to stay under $1500 too. Also for looking a good battery life, bright screen, and Wireless-N integration!

Any help would be very appreciated!
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The Macbook is a Windows laptop, if you want it to be.

Once you're used to Mac OS X, you probably won't. ;)
 
false said:
Trying to stay under $1500 too. Also for looking a good battery life, bright screen, and Wireless-N integration!

Any help would be very appreciated!
Click to expand...

You can get a Macbook (make sure to get the educational discount...another $100 off) plus Windows XP and Parallels for under $1500.
 
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With the educational discount you can get yourself a macbook and just install windows (Xp or vista) on a partition. I can tell you from experience that OS X is more similar to windows than you think, so the learning curve is pretty small. Once you get the hang of it you will come to see that the user interface is more simple and logical than windows. If you decide that OS X is not for you, then you can just set up your mac to boot directly into windows everytime you turn it on.
Probably the hardest choice is choosing the color. Many people like the white macbook becuase it looks so much like the older ibook. I personally like the black macbook better, it just looks more sexy than the white one.

The one advice that you will see over and over is DO NOT upgrade your memory directly from Apple. The prices they charge for the memory upgrades are ridiculous. Instead buy and install the memory yourself and you will save $$$. Its pretty simple to do.
 
highly recommend the macbook. my class probably has 10-15 with macs and i have never heard any problems. anytime i really really need a windows OS (which is whenever i want to watch videos using enounce), i just get on parallels, which works absolutely great. i haven't had any problems. wouldn't worry.
 
I just switched from Windows to MacOS X and I love it. I was considering the Dell XPS 1330 also, but I've been slightly annoyed by my previous Dell laptops and decided to try something new. The Mac is great! It's much more stable than Windows and very intuitive. It only took me a couple of days to feel comfortable with it.
 
Doesn't look like there is any need for me to post, but get the MacBook. You'll never look back.
 
After some thought I decided to just stick with windows since it's what I'm used to. I also decided to go with a tablet. I've heard tablets can be very helpful.
 
false said:
After some thought I decided to just stick with windows since it's what I'm used to...I've heard tablets can be very helpful.
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If you're going to stick with Windows, you'll need 'em. Try the chewable ones. ;)

ChewTy.gif
 
A little off topic but....

What is the deal with the new Leopard OS. Is this really going to be a significant upgrade or just a nominal one at best? I guess my real question is, might it be worth it to wait until October to make a purchase in order to take advantage of the October version 10.5 release?
 
it's not going to be a significant upgrade at all. osx is already pretty tweeked up just like windows xp. microsoft released vista (which wasnt a significant upgrade either) and apple is going to counter with their own 'newer' one.
 
def jeff said:
A little off topic but....

What is the deal with the new Leopard OS. Is this really going to be a significant upgrade or just a nominal one at best? I guess my real question is, might it be worth it to wait until October to make a purchase in order to take advantage of the October version 10.5 release?
Click to expand...

From what I have seen of leopard, Apple basically added a some more eye candy and one or two more useful functions to the OS, like microsoft did with Vista. I agree with sunnyside, it looks more like vista was microsofts answer to Tiger and leopard is Apples answer to vista. Sort of a one-upmanship to say who has the neater OS. I use both vista and OS X and I have to say that so fat OS X has a slight advantage in that it has a cleaner, more streamlined user interface. Its just mmore intuitive and doesnt "get in the way".
 
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I find power point to be irritatingly slow when dealing with huge files on an intel mac. Office has not yet been written in universal binary and the rosetta emulation just doesn't handel a 500MB powerpoint as quickly as I would like. Aside from that, and one inexplicable total crash (wouldn't start up, just the blinking file folder with a question mark in the middle of death) I've had no complaints about my Macbook.

However, the Office issue is a big enough deal for me I'd consider sticking with windows until a UB is released for Mac.
 
Dr Who said:
From what I have seen of leopard, Apple basically added a some more eye candy and one or two more useful functions to the OS, like microsoft did with Vista. I agree with sunnyside, it looks more like vista was microsofts answer to Tiger and leopard is Apples answer to vista. Sort of a one-upmanship to say who has the neater OS. I use both vista and OS X and I have to say that so fat OS X has a slight advantage in that it has a cleaner, more streamlined user interface. Its just mmore intuitive and doesnt "get in the way".
Click to expand...

Vista is Microsoft's answer to Mac OSX Public Beta… (both just as unwieldy).
 
love my macbook pro. I will never buy a windows-based PC again.
 
i have a macbook and i just installed the paralles program to run XP. apparently the XP is better for the paralles than vista is. is that true?
 
TMP-SMX said:
Also remember you get a free ipod if you are buying from the ed store.
Click to expand...

A $200 rebate on an iPod, actually - which translates to a free iPod nano, or a 30GB iPod for $50 (that's what I got!), or an 80GB iPod for $150.

PLUS you get a $100 rebate on a printer, which means you can get a basic multi-function printer/scanner/copier for free.
 
CindyLou said:
i have a macbook and i just installed the paralles program to run XP. apparently the XP is better for the paralles than vista is. is that true?
Click to expand...

I have heard that people are happier with XP because it runs more "smoothly" than Vista on their Macs.

However, I have also heard that Vista runs better on a Mac running paralells than on a regular PC! This Fall I will upgrade to Leopard and run OS X and XP on my Mac. I don't think Vista has anything really worth upgrading over XP.
 
I've been waiting for the 12" G4 Powerbooks to be available again on Apple's refurbished website - but no luck these past few months. :( The MacBook Pro looks awesome, but I really wanted a more portable computer.
 
RokChalkJayhawk said:
However, I have also heard that Vista runs better on a Mac running paralells than on a regular PC!
Click to expand...

This is just silly. Vista is pretty resources intensive and I don't believe it would run well on my Macbook (2.0ghz core duo, 1gb ram, integrated video) esp through parallels. My desktop however (1.83 core 2 duo, 2 gig ram, 256mb graphics card) runs Vista very well. And MS Office actually runs well (try playing with 500mb medical school powerpoints on a new mac vs a new PC running Vista and office 2007). No comparison to trying to run it through rosetta emulation. Yes, this will likely be resolved for the most part with the new mac release of MS Office but is still an issue at the moment.

People with Vista problems are likely running on less RAM, something I would not recommend.
 
Dakota said:
This is just silly. Vista is pretty resources intensive and I don't believe it would run well on my Macbook (2.0ghz core duo, 1gb ram, integrated video) esp through parallels. My desktop however (1.83 core 2 duo, 2 gig ram, 256mb graphics card) runs Vista very well. And MS Office actually runs well (try playing with 500mb medical school powerpoints on a new mac vs a new PC running Vista and office 2007). No comparison to trying to run it through rosetta emulation. Yes, this will likely be resolved for the most part with the new mac release of MS Office but is still an issue at the moment.

People with Vista problems are likely running on less RAM, something I would not recommend.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's silly at all. As you can't customize a Mac as much as a PC, most macs tend to have higher end components (the main reason of their higher expense). True, anything will run better with better parts to run it, and in this case, Vista tends to run very well on a Mac. It would take a top end computer in any case to run a 500 mb powerpoint presentation.

And Tiger is better than Vista anyway so unless there's a program I HAVE to use windows for there's no way I'm even installing it. That and Leopard is coming out.
 
One would need a significant component discrepancy to make up for virtualization. I'm sorry if I misunderstood you, but it seemed you suggested vista runs better in general on any mac (through virtualization) than on any pc (natively), and I do not believe this is accurate.

I tried out macs, using my macbook exclusively until I had a complete hard drive failure (replaced under waranty). This scared me enough (first computer I had that has died on me) that I got a desktop as a backup and due to the speed of power point and some other issues, became my default computer.

Macs work out great for some people, if someone is considering it, I'd recommend giving it a try (I esp like playing with aperture, less of a learning curve and nicer price than full out photoshop). I also think my macbook is one of the best looking laptops available. However, ultimately I found myself frusterated by inherent compromises such as having to use a work around like missing sync to use windows mobile (as best I can tell palm os is on it's last legs some miracle notwithstanding), limited speed of MS office due to rosetta emulation, didn't like ical/apple mail as well as outlook, etc. To anyone considering Mac, if you just want e-mail, ms office (and don't care that the current version of ppt is slow), internet, and photoediting, go for it. Just keep in mind what you are giving up.
 
My fave things so far about the Mac are the security and ease of use. I'm not very tech savvy and I find OS X an easier interface to use. After having multiple people in my family get their PCs seriously infected with viruses, I am happy to be on an operating system which is supposedly virus proof with appropriate protection.

I don't feel like I have given up the features of any Windows only programs, as I found Microsoft Office for Mac just as capable as the PC version. Maybe I will be singing a different tune next month once med school begins though. :eek:
 
RokChalkJayhawk said:
I don't feel like I have given up the features of any Windows only programs, as I found Microsoft Office for Mac just as capable as the PC version. Maybe I will be singing a different tune next month once med school begins though. :eek:
Click to expand...

Office does work just fine for mac. It just means your triple extra large powerpoint files (med school professors seem to love them) will take 15 seconds to load instead of 4 . . . not a huge deal. If you like using your computer now, that won't change. Enjoy, and best of luck with MSI.

In response to quantum mechanic, I like things I have on Windows like Outlook (entourage, apple mail, and ical just didn't do it for me), the ability to sync well with a Windows Mobile device, and the extra speed in ppt when handeling very large files. Admittedly most med students probably aren't serious Outlook users, but it helps me stay organized. All med students (or nearly all) use large power point files and 10 extra seconds waiting for a file to open isn't a deal breaker, but it is mildly annoying.
 
Bottom line Macbooks, Macbook Pros, iBooks, Powerbooks will work just fine for you in medical school. All you really need in most places is some means to connect to the internet (wi-fi) which Macs come with built in standard: Airport card; You'll need an internet browser and Powerpoint and Word. Office for Mac is a complete Office Suite, runs quite well on the new Macs (a little slow b/c of the Rosetta translation software but who cares it will work, just take a couple sips of coffee while you wait for large ppts to load). You can pick up Office for Mac with a $25 rebate right now at the Apple online and Apple Retail stores. Don't forget about the Apple Education discounts.

Windoze on a Mac to me just seems silly and a waste of hard drive space. OSX is more stable, user friendly and very intuitive. I have been using a Mac for years now and have not had any issues with accessing anything my graduate school or medical school professors have thrown my way.
:D
 
I would suggest running vista on a separate partition using boot camp. By booting into vista it runs natively and uses ALL of the resources available in your comp as opposed to sharing as would be the case when using parallels. If you want to use both windows and mac side by side then use win Xp with parallels. Windows Xp might not have all the eye candy of vista, but it is a perfectly good operating system that can run any program that runs on vista without being a resource hog.
I myself set up my imac using vista under bootcamp and Xp under parallels. I have to say that vista on my imac with 2 Gb RAM and 128 Mb video card runs more smoothly than it does on my friend's Dell with 2Gb RAM and 256 Mb video card.
You can even buy a program called macdrive that gives you access to both the mac OS X and Vista partitions, so you can read and write and drag and drop files between partitions. It really blurs the line between both Os's making it seem as if they are both an integrated OS. Once you have this you will never want to go back.

As for microsoft Office, unfortunately because of the recent transition from PowerPc to Intel, it has to run under a virtualization program called Rosetta made by Apple. That means it is a bit slower than if it were running natively, by slower I mean only a bit so unless you are running huge powerpoint presentations you wont notice the difference. Obviously microsoft is dragging their feet a bit on mac Office in order to give their windows version (Office 2007) a running head start. Fortunately for us mac users microsoft is slated to release a new version of office for the mac (mac office 2008) later this year. That means Office will finally run natively on the Intel macs. I dont have much of a problem with this because I installed Office 2007 on both my vista partition and on windows Xp running under parallels which work just fine.
 
Dr Who said:
I would suggest running vista on a separate partition using boot camp. By booting into vista it runs natively and uses ALL of the resources available in your comp as opposed to sharing as would be the case when using parallels. If you want to use both windows and mac side by side then use win Xp with parallels. Windows Xp might not have all the eye candy of vista, but it is a perfectly good operating system that can run any program that runs on vista without being a resource hog.
I myself set up my imac using vista under bootcamp and Xp under parallels. I have to say that vista on my imac with 2 Gb RAM and 128 Mb video card runs more smoothly than it does on my friend's Dell with 2Gb RAM and 256 Mb video card.
You can even buy a program called macdrive that gives you access to both the mac OS X and Vista partitions, so you can read and write and drag and drop files between partitions. It really blurs the line between both Os's making it seem as if they are both an integrated OS. Once you have this you will never want to go back.

As for microsoft Office, unfortunately because of the recent transition from PowerPc to Intel, it has to run under a virtualization program called Rosetta made by Apple. That means it is a bit slower than if it were running natively, by slower I mean only a bit so unless you are running huge powerpoint presentations you wont notice the difference. Obviously microsoft is dragging their feet a bit on mac Office in order to give their windows version (Office 2007) a running head start. Fortunately for us mac users microsoft is slated to release a new version of office for the mac (mac office 2008) later this year. That means Office will finally run natively on the Intel macs. I dont have much of a problem with this because I installed Office 2007 on both my vista partition and on windows Xp running under parallels which work just fine.
Click to expand...

Any good advice on how to do this? I am getting Vista next week and would like to install it on my MBP.
 
RokChalkJayhawk said:
Any good advice on how to do this? I am getting Vista next week and would like to install it on my MBP.
Click to expand...

Its a pretty simple procedure. When you get your macbook pro go to the Apple website and download Boot Camp. Once you download the program, just follow the instructions and you are set. Make sure you have the vista install disc with you. You will also need a blank CD to burn all the necessary vista drivers which are included in boot camp before you install vista.
 
Hey,
Did you see this article?: http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9742422-1.html?tag=cnetfd.mt

It's a rumor that there'll be a 12" macbook Pro with touchscreen capabilities later this year (as read in the mac forums). I need a laptop sooner than that! I'm thinking this will be great if it has 'tablet' like functions, but I'm not so sure at all.

Anyways, just wanted to share. There will always be new gadgets coming out and it's always hard to decide.
 
Dr Who said:
The one advice that you will see over and over is DO NOT upgrade your memory directly from Apple. The prices they charge for the memory upgrades are ridiculous. Instead buy and install the memory yourself and you will save $$$. Its pretty simple to do.
Click to expand...


I stumbled upon this and I am wondering if this is all I really need to know in order to install a RAM upgrade. Am I right?
 
Dr Who said:
The one advice that you will see over and over is DO NOT upgrade your memory directly from Apple. The prices they charge for the memory upgrades are ridiculous. Instead buy and install the memory yourself and you will save $$$. Its pretty simple to do.
Click to expand...


I stumbled upon this and I am wondering if this is all I really need to know in order to install a RAM upgrade. Am I right?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303721
 
I've got my 2 GB running on my MBP now just fine. Took 10 minutes from start to finish.

I suggest crucial.com to purchase memory upgrades.
 
RokChalkJayhawk said:
I've got my 2 GB running on my MBP now just fine. Took 10 minutes from start to finish.

I suggest crucial.com to purchase memory upgrades.
Click to expand...

I'd second that recommendation - Crucial is very good; they've got very solid quality, are fairly inexpensive (although not as cheap as what you'll find on NewEgg), and are very good at tracking what individual models need.
 
So I just switched over to a macbook and love it. In order for me to get on the wireless network at school, though, I need to have virus software installed. Any recommendations, since I'm new to the mac world?
 
MicroBugs said:
So I just switched over to a macbook and love it. In order for me to get on the wireless network at school, though, I need to have virus software installed. Any recommendations, since I'm new to the mac world?
Click to expand...

Try http://www.clamxav.com/ - it's free, and it's based on a good antivirus program (ClamAV) for Linux/Unix which is what I've use for many of the email servers I set up.
 
MicroBugs said:
So I just switched over to a macbook and love it. In order for me to get on the wireless network at school, though, I need to have virus software installed. Any recommendations, since I'm new to the mac world?
Click to expand...

Does your school offer free anti-virus software?
 
KentW said:
Save your money. You don't need anti-virus software on a Mac (unless you install Windows on it, that is.)
Click to expand...

Anti-virus software is useful on a Mac if you will be sharing files. The software will help prevent you from spreading a virus attached to a file to Windows users.

We use Sophos antivirus for both Macs and PCs, although the only reason I chose Sophos is because it was provided for free.
 
Dakota said:
Anti-virus software is useful on a Mac if you will be sharing files. The software will help prevent you from spreading a virus attached to a file to Windows users.
Click to expand...

That's their problem. ;)
 
Hi all~

If I decide to stick with my Mac and get Parallels, does anybody know the approximate cost of getting that AND the microsoft XP CD? Anybody know where I can get both at the cheapest cost? Thanks!
 
JourneyToMD said:
If I decide to stick with my Mac and get Parallels, does anybody know the approximate cost of getting that AND the microsoft XP CD? Anybody know where I can get both at the cheapest cost? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Parallels - see http://www.parallels.com/ - $79.95 - I don't think they have any academic discounts.

XP comes in both Home and Pro and in "OEM" "upgrade" and "retail" versions - I'm not sure if an OEM version will work with Parallels, retail is the safest bet but the most expensive. You may be able to get an academic license of XP Pro (either upgrade or retail) for about $100 through your school; otherwise, an OEM version of XP Home costs about $50-100 online (many places will sell it on its own, but technically it's only supposed to be sold with a new system.)

There are also various brand-specific OEM versions like from Dell or HP - those tend to be "locked" so they'll only install on machines from that manufacturer, but you could always try one if you have an extra disc and serial number kicking around.
 
KentW said:
Save your money. You don't need anti-virus software on a Mac (unless you install Windows on it, that is.)

But, if it makes you feel better, try this (it's free): http://www.clamxav.com/
Click to expand...

As Macs have become more common, isn't it true that there are viruses that afflict macs now also? Just what I've heard but I'm not sure.
 
RokChalkJayhawk said:
As Macs have become more common, isn't it true that there are viruses that afflict macs now also? Just what I've heard but I'm not sure.
Click to expand...
Currently there are no viruses in the wild. However, with time there will eventually be a virus released that will plague Macs. Windows viruses will still far outnumber Mac viruses for many years to come.
 
RokChalkJayhawk said:
As Macs have become more common, isn't it true that there are viruses that afflict macs now also?
Click to expand...

Nope...not yet, anyway.

southerndoc said:
However, with time there will eventually be a virus released that will plague Macs. Windows viruses will still far outnumber Mac viruses for many years to come.
Click to expand...

ClamXAV (the program mentioned earlier) currently scans for over 145,000 Windows viruses. Yeah, it'll take a while to top that. ;)
 
Dakota said:
This is just silly. Vista is pretty resources intensive and I don't believe it would run well on my Macbook (2.0ghz core duo, 1gb ram, integrated video) esp through parallels. My desktop however (1.83 core 2 duo, 2 gig ram, 256mb graphics card) runs Vista very well. And MS Office actually runs well (try playing with 500mb medical school powerpoints on a new mac vs a new PC running Vista and office 2007). No comparison to trying to run it through rosetta emulation. Yes, this will likely be resolved for the most part with the new mac release of MS Office but is still an issue at the moment.

People with Vista problems are likely running on less RAM, something I would not recommend.
Click to expand...


http://mailbox.allthingsd.com/20070823/running-windows-vista-on-a-mac/

"If you install Boot Camp on a well-equipped Mac model, it can become a blazing fast Vista computer. A few days ago I bought a top-of-the-line model of Apple’s new iMac line, and installed Boot Camp and Vista. I then tested the machine using Vista’s built-in Windows Experience Index, a rating system that goes from 1 to 5.9, with scores above 3.0 generally required for full, quick performance. My iMac scored a 5.0, the best score of any consumer Vista machine I have tested. Obviously, a tricked-out high end Dell or HP box might do as well or better, and a lesser Mac might do worse. But the score was very impressive for a computer that wasn’t designed with Vista in mind."
 
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