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| Thinking of getting a Macintosh | |
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| Topic Started: Jul 18 2009, 01:43 AM (1,122 Views) | |
| Paper | Jul 31 2009, 08:00 PM Post #46 |
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The sentence basically means you need to be computer competent enough to know abstract concepts like files, folders and understand what you're expected to do when presented with something (e.g. in a settings dialogue in Microsoft Office). You also need to have internet competence to know how to properly use google and websites to find information if need be. If you would be completely lost doing things (in Windows) like connecting a keyboard to the back of your computer, setting up a new email account, installing programs, downloading pictures off of your camera or using a scanner, even after googling these, without another person's help, then Ubuntu is definitely not for you. If you're looking for something that is guaranteed to work, a mac machine is your uncle. If you're looking for something that is likely to work, and will cost you a lot less in terms of hardware, however may, but probably won't, initially require configuring, then Ubuntu is your uncle. Whilst Mac's are lovely, I wouldn't be willing to pay $1000 when I could pay $300 and do a bit of DIY myself. As I said before, the best way to decide is to try before you buy. If you do go for Mac, I think you will be impressed. The Mac OS is more impressive than Ubuntu - albeit not so cheap! EDIT: ALSO, If you do go for the Mac choice, as a student you can get discount: I'm guessing you're from one of these countries, or the UK, since your English is perfect and you know how much a US dollar is worth. USA | UK | Canada English (Canada French) | Australia | New Zealand | Hong Kong Edited by Paper, Jul 31 2009, 08:53 PM.
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| ElementalAlchemist | Jul 31 2009, 08:52 PM Post #47 |
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I don't think we had DVD-Rs when I burned 8.10. At least I didn't know where they are  I guarantee your computer can still run it. I only mentioned mostly-new ATI video cards with 9.04 are a bad idea because ATI is evil and discontinued their drivers for it (though the open source driver is improving greatly, but X still crashes on me). Edited by ElementalAlchemist, Jul 31 2009, 08:55 PM.
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| cvn-tv-dip | Jul 31 2009, 09:08 PM Post #48 |
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I'm a student in US, and we indeed get student discounts. In fact, our campus bookstore sponsors/discount-offers Macs. Thanks for the info; it was really helpful. I guess what I need to look for now is how to put together parts for building a computer that can run XP and Ubuntu (or find a cheap but decent-quality blank computer that runs these). If I can do so, Linux may not be bad. Edited by cvn-tv-dip, Jul 31 2009, 09:09 PM.
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| catface | Aug 6 2009, 02:35 AM Post #49 |
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A computer that can run XP and Ubuntu? well i've seen both run rather happily on Pentium II sysytems, so that's not exactly hard ;p |
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| Paper | Aug 6 2009, 07:35 AM Post #50 |
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Hey cvn-tv-dip, concentrate on XP, Ubuntu is guaranteed to run on almost anything - unless you use extremely old or new parts. If you're upgrading your computer a lot, you may find it costs less to buy an entire new computer box. Although I guess that depends how the market is doing right now. |
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| cvn-tv-dip | Aug 7 2009, 12:15 AM Post #51 |
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I don't upgrade my computer that much. All my computer parts are getting quite old and I would rather get a fresh computer. So I went to a Mac store today and tried a Macbook Pro. It was indeed nice and clean. Web browsing worked fine as expected and Finder seemed adaptable. I will say there were quite a lot of things involved, more than I could really keep track of. I actually might not need that many features that the Mac offers. Apparently I can get a discounted Macbook with a free-after-rebate iTouch (which I wouldn't even really need). In the future, what things should I test out when I try a computer/OS? Tomorrow I'm going to try to get Ubuntu and Windows 7 working and test those. Edited by cvn-tv-dip, Aug 7 2009, 12:17 AM.
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| Paper | Aug 7 2009, 07:03 AM Post #52 |
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Well what do you really want in a computer. Test that all your usual programs run as you want and with stability and speed. You could try download a large word document file and opening it using the respective programs to ensure it opens and with the correct formatting. |
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