Going to school!!!

[JonM1827]

Hi everybody... I'm going off to Miami Ohio (www.muohio.edu) next year, and im going to be getting a laptop... I'm going to be a business student there, and they "DO NOT RECOMEND" getting a MacBook Pro even with XP running on it, because it has not been fully tested... personally I really like the idea of being able to boot into all three OS's, but I do not want to be stuck with something that wont be able to run my programs...

I cannot get into any detail about specific programs I will need to be able to run, because I do not know what I will have to use yet...

Here is there website (http://www.units.muohio.edu/mcs/suppctr/MiamiNotebook/models/academicprogramrecommendations.php) with their academic recomendations... it says the stuff about boot camp at the bottom of the page (I'm going to be a business student by the way... possibly with a minor in computer science :p)

Also one thing that I do know is that they use altiris agent... and all I know about that is that it backs up your hard drive... does anybody know anything about this, and if it would back up all of the partitions?

Thank you very much for any help in advance,
-Jon

[bohrhead]

Tell them where to shove it. It works fine. I think people get confused about the purpose of 'Boot Camp'. As many have said, it is the firmware update that does all the work and Boot Camp is just the utility that does the partitioning and driver cd for you. Once you've booted into windows, it's just a normal windows machine. The only things that don't work are the wacky Apple things like the backlit keys and the iSight. Eveything else just works as it would on any windows machine.

[JonM1827]

Yeah... but all schools are saything the same thing... there has to be some reason why they are recomending against it....
is it just because they think ppl are too stupid to partition their own hd or what :confused:

There just has to be some reason... all I know is i want me a MBP :p

Thanks for the input,
-Jon

[MitchellH]

I have a MBP and I use it in my programming class at UCLA and they give no fuss. :)

[Embio]

what a load of ****. I would say they are clearly in Microsofts pocket, but they also reccommend Macs... odd. My advice would be that they clearly dont know what they are talking about, and for them to try and dictate to you what machine to buy is frankly ridiculus. Haven't they heard of free market economics?? Go to your classes, proudly with your MBP, and if anyone snears or says anything just hit them.

Rant over

[NeoRicen]

Sounds like they're jsut being careful, but don't worry if you use Boot Camp and use windows you wouldn't know the difference between it and a PC however if you're just getting it for windows you may as well get a PC Notebook. Also I'd consider getting a regular MacBook instead, much cheaper and all you really lose out on is the Video Card however so unless you need that a MacBook is a much better option.

[KublaKhan]

Really...?
I'm going to Wheaton College this year and they actually recommend the Macbook Pro. And not just any Macbook Pro - the totally pimped out (everything upgraded) version which costs a little over 2 1/2 thousand dollars (>2,500).

Yep, it's their recommended computer (they apparently don't recommend the regular Macbook).

Good thing I have a MacBook!


Can't wait for school... :D

[bdj21ya]

The guy in charge of making the recommendations must have some stock in Apple or something:) .

Seriously is this a video editting school or why are they recommending that? (I'm all for getting the best if you've got the money, but it seems strange coming from an IT department)

[labttrfly13]

My school highly suggested NOT to get the imac intel with windows XP, I need it for transcription purposes and that software only runs on windows. I said @#$% that and got it anyway, and it works better than even I thought it would. Most people get confused bootcamp with virtual windows. As my school did. Proved them wrong!

:cool:

[--MSlaw]

I'm starting at a law school that also specifically reccomended against getting a MacBook. I even spoke to their IT department and he gave me some doomsday scenario that all but ended with me living in a cardboard box under an overpass for the rest of my life if I didn't buy the $1500 dell they were trying to sell me.

I spoke to their help desk lady (read: not a dork, a decent human being) and they said the only time I would need WinXP was to run their special law school test taking software. Anyway, the company that makes the test taking software said their software works great on Macs bootcamped into WinXP but if law schools *specifically* ask for it, they can block it or whatever so it would only start on PCs. Well, I pissed and moaned and they went and talked to the dean of the school and she said they decided not to have the software company block their software.

All this trouble for these schools to sell their own damn computers!

[bdj21ya]

Good for you, way to take a stand. I was at law school this last year, and they were using Soft Test for most all exams (I think this is pretty standard among law schools). The problem with dual booting for using Soft Test is that it circumvents all the security of the program. When you run Soft Test on a Windows PC, it locks out everything, and I mean everything you could try to access the rest of your computer. If you restart, it will only load back into Soft Test, until you tell it the exam is over, and then there is no getting back in.

However, with dual booting, a user could easily restart, go into the other bootable system (e.g. OS X), find a bunch of answers, then boot back into Soft Test. (a huge waste of time, especially on an essay exam (which almost all of them are) and you have to assume that the proctors are sleeping this whole time).

However, it's completely unfair to single out Macs for this ability, since PC's have been able to boot into more than 1 OS for many years. However, I think some IT people are a bit too dim to recognize this flaw in the security of Soft Test, or they just figure that law students aren't tech saavy enough to partition two bootable sections on their hard drives.

[JonM1827]

Thanks for all of the input... i guess ill call the school, and see if I can figure anything out

-Jon

I just dont want to be skrewed out of being able to use my new computer (if I get a macbook)