is an apple macbook worth the extra

asininity

I would say no it aint worth the extra.

Yes it will probably last until she finishes school (provided the battery doesn't explode[sorry couldn't resist:D]) provided she doesn't look after it the way 10-16 year olds look after the rest of their stuff and as mentioned above it doesn't get stolen.

I'd buy her a laptop thats cheaper and theres a possibility of upgrading in the future when she wants a new one like all her friends have just got.

Just my opinion.

Leopard

discodiva wrote: »

my daughter (aged 10 ) has been on an apple workshop with school and wants the macbook for xmas I origionally had a budget of £500 to spend on a laptop for her but don't mind spending the extra if it's worth it she will be going to high school sept'10 and the schools she has chosen all use apple comp. will this last until she leaves school ?

discodiva,

I don't understand what you mean by "apple comp." (sic) but I'm so old that I go back to the days when parents, rather than their children, chose to which school they should send their infants, so I'm not up to speed with modern educational parlance.

You write that you don't mind any additional expense a Mac might incur: that, therefore, is not a material consideration which needs to be taken into account in deciding what to buy her.

Three things are.

1. A Mac is what she, herself, would prefer – and she's the one who is going to be using it.

2. As far as I can divine from what you write, the schools she is likely to attend all use, or even favour, Apple Macs.

3. If and when necessary, Windows can be run (even natively) on a modern Mac – but the Mac OS cannot be run (legitimately – even though it can be achieved, to some extent, with a degree of ingenuity) on a Windows-based computer.

For the above reasons, you should buy her a Mac.

As to durability and longevity, I'm writing this on an Apple laptop that's seven years old and has been around the world three times. That said, however, it has never been subjected to the rigours of school life. peer hooliganism and juvenile leisure activities.

What you'll find is that computer technology moves ahead at a prodigious rate and so does software development. What's current now will, to a greater or lesser extent, depending upon the tasks to which it is applied, become slow and obsolete in three year's time. But that applies equally to a Windows-based computer.

This Mac was the mutt's nuts in 2002. It advanced through every contemporary Mac OS until the latest one, a couple of months ago, but the increasing complexity and sophistication of each new upgrade and update gradually took its toll on the speed at which it operates. That's fine if you can relegate it to simpler tasks, as I do, and buy a new (or newer) one to tackle cutting edge stuff.

What I'm saying is that a Mac, if it's treated sympathetically, will still be running perkily and happily on its original software in ten or twenty years time (I've got one that is and does) but it won't be able to handle the latest software and ancillary devices that you may wish to use with it.

You'd be best to think of replacing even a Mac laptop every three or four years to keep pace with advancing technology.

The bottom line is that you buy a Mac if and because you want or need to run Apple's operating system instead of Microsoft's, not because it looks nice and is stylish.

And, at least to date, Apple's operating system is not afflicted by all the time-consuming malware problems with which Windows users are plagued on a daily basis.

She'll love a Mac. And, once you've seen her working with it, and all the other things she can do with it, you'll want one yourself!

vyle

Leopard wrote: »

I think that's going a bit far; but if you really feel that way, stop running Windows on it. :rolleyes:

I quite like windows. I find it more intuitive to use. I know where all the settings and options are. I know what I'm doing so don't suffer from viruses, spyware, malware, adware, etc.

On a mac, if I want to create a new document, can I right click and select "new document"? Nope.

If you're a clueless windows user, then I guess mac OSs won't be much of a transition, but if you know windows inside out, Macs are horrifically alien.

Like I said, I've tried Macs, but I really dislike the OS. The lack of a decent right click option slows things down for me no end.

I wish my parents would spend £400+ on me for my birthday. All I got for my 11th birthday was themepark for the megadrive.

vyle

cabbage wrote: »

Hi

I bought my daughter one for her 13th birthday. She used to get loads of viruses and quite regularly we had to wipe clean the hardrive. Since getting the apple laptop she's not had one virus. She takes it on holiday, on long trips and its extremely robust.

...

Its a brilliant pc/laptop, very well made, without the need for expensive anti virus software.

A bit of knowledge with PC use would stop viruses quite easily. Basically don't download things that are obviously viruses.

I use a few free programs and they're all the antivirus software you need. If the lack of viruses is the main selling point of a Mac, then it's surely the most expensive antivirus software of all?

thescouselander

vyle wrote: »

On a mac, if I want to create a new document, can I right click and select "new document"? Nope.

Thats not true - I find the right click function on OS X generally brings up the same options as on windows.

vyle

thescouselander wrote: »

Thats not true - I find the right click function on OS X generally brings up the same options as on windows.

interesting. I shall have to have a play and see if i can configure one of the macs at work to allow me to do so. But I guess I'd need to install I-works or office or something to provide those options, unless macs have a generic word processing program?

Leopard

vyle wrote: »

On a mac, if I want to create a new document, can I right click and select "new document"? Nope.

It rather depends upon how you configure your mouse. But, in general, the answer is no, certainly in 'Word": the blame for this is Microsoft's because that's how they wrote the application.

Personally, I don't find it any burden to key "COMMAND" and "N" simultaneously if I'm using the keyboard or to run the cursor up to "File" and click on "Open new file" if I'm using the mouse.

I wish my parents would spend £400+ on me for my birthday. All I got for my 11th birthday was themepark for the megadrive.

I wish the Megadrive had been invented when I was eleven!

thescouselander

vyle wrote: »

interesting. I shall have to have a play and see if i can configure one of the macs at work to allow me to do so. But I guess I'd need to install I-works or office or something to provide those options, unless macs have a generic word processing program?

As I said, the menus are generally the same but not every function will the same. I just had a look on word and the new document option does't appear in the list but there are the other ones like copy, paste, fonts etc etc.

Marty_J

vyle wrote: »

I quite like windows. I find it more intuitive to use. I know where all the settings and options are. I know what I'm doing so don't suffer from viruses, spyware, malware, adware, etc.

On a mac, if I want to create a new document, can I right click and select "new document"? Nope.

If you're a clueless windows user, then I guess mac OSs won't be much of a transition, but if you know windows inside out, Macs are horrifically alien.

Like I said, I've tried Macs, but I really dislike the OS. The lack of a decent right click option slows things down for me no end.

I wish my parents would spend £400+ on me for my birthday. All I got for my 11th birthday was themepark for the megadrive.

There's a difference between "knowledge" and "intuition". I'm reasonably certain you weren't a Windows whiz the very first time you used it.

You know how Windows works, and for some strange and incomprehensible reason, you expect Mac OS X to work in exactly the same way. Perhaps there are better ways to do things than the way Windows does them?

I guess it might not be that strange; when I use Windows, I expect to be able to open a PDF, create/open a disk image, open a RAW file, or look up a word in the dictionary, thesaurus, or Wikipedia, without having to install any additional software, but I'm frequently disappointed.

Leopard

It's precisely because, and the manner in which, Mac OS X works differently to Windows that I and many others (including the OP's daughter) prefer it.