TX515 said:
To current students, what laptops do you recommend? There is a discount for Dells right? I was thinking about Lenovo, Apple, or Dell. Have there been any problems with wireless internet using the Apple? I have heard that Apples aren't so great going wireless. Thanks.
Actually, I've had great luck with my Apple (powerbook) on campus - in fact, I never have any trouble getting onto UTMB's oncampus wireless server (UTMBi), while 3 windows-users were bitching to me this week that it takes them 20 minutes each time to log in (I don't know if everyone has the same experience, just that some people were talkign about their problems yesterday). So, whoever told you Apples "aren't so great" for wireless was not being factual.
It is true that UTMB's wireless itself can be annoying - there's an on-campus intranet server (UTMBi) that you have to jump through hoops to get onto sometimes.
UTMB offered a cd for windows users (that didn't work, btw, and ended up slowing some people's machines down.
), but I just set up my Mac without the cd in less than 5 minutes one day, and now it automatically logs into the wireless server nearly every time (there's a website on how to do this & what security measures to use).
When the campus wireless networks are being testy (for everyone, don't know why this happens every once in a while), my powerbook can log on when other users can't because I just go to internet connect and "remind it" (manually press connect) to log into the wireless server. Still, don't worry, the wireless network seems to be fine for everyone most of the time.
As for software compatibiity, the ~2 cds we have been given so far had .exe files, but the important files are usually set up as .html files or available on the course website, so they are still viewable on macs, or at least on any campus computer.
Oh yeah, and apple offers educational discounts - I think 10% on their website and cheap software in the bookstore. Basically, UTMB is considered under UT Austin's discounts.
A lot of students have those tablet PCs too, which can be pretty useful for marking notes on color pictures and such. My friends who have them like their compact size and convenience.
Somehow UTMB forgot to mention that they somewhat expect us to have a laptop - we just started a new lab this week and we've been told to bring our laptop to class. You don't *need* a laptop, since they also provide the actual slides in class, but it's useful to bring it.
