I am thinking about getting a laptop which is better macbook or a diffent laptop

define better.

 

if you are just surfing the net then i'd go for the cheapest you can get.

 

if you want to play games(beyond those silly little flash games) on it go for a standard laptop.

Well, what price range are you in? Macs are more expensive, but they work better(mainly because they have better parts and the software is designed for the parts instead of being designed to work on almost anything). Now, you can even use Windows on a Mac bot(and it works better due to better standard parts). About games, many games are made for Macs as well. In fact, I got Fable when I bought my MacBook Pro. However, they are a lot more expensive.

The price range is below 1500$ I know i is not a lot but it is just for school work so I dont need a lot of ram or hard drive

You can get a decent laptop for under $1000.

where can you get one for that little

Best Buy, Circuit City, Walmart, eBay....

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=abcat0502001&type=category

 

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/category.do?catOid=-12963&N=20012961+20012963&c=1

 

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=4070

 

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37.l1312&satitle=laptop&category0=

which do you think would be a better choice depinding on bang for your buck a desktop or laptop??????

It depends on how you want to use it. Does portability matter?

desktops give better performance than laptops of the same price as their components don't need to fit into such a small package.

I prefer laptops, though, because you can still work at a desk with a lappy, but you can't work in the park with a desktop (not without a crazy long extension cord and a lot of confused passers-by, anyway).

actually I had a friend splice a surge protector into the electrical lines of his car and run a Desktop off of that - not a very practical use I must say, I dunno why he would do such as that -

 

I would definitely go PC, and probably a Dell since I get a discount, but I have a bias against apple (kind of unfounded, but I accept it) and so would definitely go something besides that. Like Lenovo, or Sony - only because the parts to build your own notebook/laptop computers aren't cost efficient yet.

Also, would you like to have a convertible laptop?

I found them quite useful, so far (using it as a notepad during meetings, quick sketches and for writing down formulas or simple illustrations during lectures).

Well, what price range are you in? Macs are more expensive, but they work better(mainly because they have better parts and the software is designed for the parts instead of being designed to work on almost anything). Now, you can even use Windows on a Mac bot(and it works better due to better standard parts). About games, many games are made for Macs as well. In fact, I got Fable when I bought my MacBook Pro. However, they are a lot more expensive.

 

Actually, Macs are generally priced about the same as a comparably-equipped alternative. The key is "comparably-equipped." You can buy a really cheap, low-end PC. Apple doesn't make low-end hardware.

 

 

Beyond that it's personal preference. (I don't find that Microsoft products emphasize the user experience. YMMV)

I would go with a good non-apple laptop, as $1500 will buy you quite a bit of hardware. You good game semi decently on a $1500 laptop.

 

A $1500 desktop should be a very competent gaming machine. Or whatever else you prefer.

 

And if you can find yourself a disk, you might want to give XP a go over Vista, depending on your preference.

 

The one problem I see with apple products is that they are expensive but very well built. Being a broke college student, my stuff gets scuffed up/lost quite a bit. It's not so bad to scuff up a cheap(-er, computers are never cheap) laptop, whereas with a mac, you'll feel like you've ruined a piece of art

I personally like PC but that's just me. Also as said you can normally get good deals from Best Buy or Circuit City. i bought my laptop last year from circuit city it was a average HP laptop. I got it for $700 with Vista Premium, a printer, router, and basic Norton Security. It works great for school work and what ever else I want to do. If you wait three months you could get monster deals the day after Thanksgiving.

I love Macs, but YMMV...

Well, what price range are you in? Macs are more expensive, but they work better(mainly because they have better parts and the software is designed for the parts instead of being designed to work on almost anything). Now, you can even use Windows on a Mac bot(and it works better due to better standard parts). About games, many games are made for Macs as well. In fact, I got Fable when I bought my MacBook Pro. However, they are a lot more expensive.

 

Given personal experience, experiences of friends and also looking around online, I'd say that, while macs USED to be higher quality than your average PC, they are probably about on par these days.

Also it depends whether raw performance is an issue. Even if Macs should have higher component quality, in terms of (computational) performance there are better ones for the buck.

Given personal experience, experiences of friends and also looking around online, I'd say that, while macs USED to be higher quality than your average PC, they are probably about on par these days.

 

If nothing else, the OS is higher quality

If nothing else, the OS is higher quality

 

depends on whether you install linux or not tbh.

depends on whether you install linux or not tbh.

 

Maybe if it's a server. The GUI just doesn't compare, nor do the available applications.

whats wrong with the GUI?

 

gnome and kde look good.

 

also, i'm not short of applications that work flawlessly.

whats wrong with the GUI?

 

Mostly usability... little "wish you could do" things which never seem to work right, or just bad design decisions from a usability perspective.

 

gnome and kde look good.

 

They look ok... then you start installing more applications only to discover lots of interface dissimilarities depending on which toolkit was used. Was it Xaw? Xlib? GTK? Qt? GNUStep? They all look different...

 

also, i'm not short of applications that work flawlessly.

 

Can you plug in a firewire DV cam and dump the contents into a non-linear video editor?

Really if you stick the time to it, you could learn to use Windows just as well as OSX or whatever they're on now - They both have a lot of potential. I've run Photo-intensive and video editing programs on both, never really played games on a mac but I'm sure you could put windows into it and play some.

 

I kinda just hate dealing with people who are into macs, with hardware you almost always get what you pay for - PC's just have more options on the lower end.

 

and this may just be my inexperience with a lot of other OS's talking, but lord forbid I come across ANYTHING on a server but Windows.