Apple MacBook Pro

Gratis

Olduserpasswordforgot wrote: »

You can run windows software on a mac.
1. either through Boot Camp, from start up
2. get VMfusion and install
3. or via parallels software. this is my favorite as you can run windows OS and OS X side by side.

the Mac choice will be strictly down to you and your needs and weather you like a well designed, durable, fantastic OS and reliability, no need for anti-virus software laptop.

as yo can i love my Macbook pro :j:rotfl::beer:

Yes, but that does mean having to buy Windows itself, instead of the Mac versions of the desired applications – which rather cancels out the saving.

And, if the whole purpose of buying a Mac in the first place is to be able to use OS X instead of Windows, installing and running Windows and Windows applications on it defeats the objective.

Lastly, of course, if you put Windows on it you then have to install all the Windows anti-malware stuff as well. The thing I hate most about using our Win7box is that every time I start it up it wants to download ten or twenty “critical” updates and it takes half an hour before I can actually do anything useful on it.

So, it’s better to bite the bullet and purchase anew the Mac versions of the software.

That written, I accept that some people do need to run things that only work on Windows and thus have no alternative but to stump up for Windows and deploy it in one of the ways you have listed.

With the rest of what you have commented I agree totally.

maggiesoop

Thanks to all. I'm thinking of getting a new Apple MacBook from John Lewis who are charging £949 for their MacBook Air MD760B/A with £150 cashback when I trade in my laptop. Does anyone know of any better offers?

almillar

MacBook Air has only recently been updated, so that's good. £150 could be either a great or awful price for your laptop. You'd want to know how much it's worth before doing that.

Gratis

You need to bear in mind that the RAM in a MacBook Air is attached directly to its motherboard and the SSD is also sealed in. (It is possible to change the SSD but it's not a job for amateurs and it would invalidate the warranty.)

So, you need to consider carefully how much RAM and what capacity of SSD you require. Because whatever you choose now, you're going to have to live with it.

The MD760B/A MacBook Air you are considering from John Lewis comes with 4 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD.

It's generally considered that 4 GB of RAM is the bare minimum that you need for the current Mac OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" and the next version, OS X 10.9 "Mavericks" is due for release this Autumn. Nobody (other than Apple) yet knows what its minimum requirements will be but it's reasonable to assume that they will not be less than its predecessor's.

As for the capacity of its SSD, 128 GB is not much for the only drive it's got. One you've installed the OS and a few applications on it there will be precious little room for any data.

The point I am making is that 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of SSD may just suffice for now but when you are spending £1,000 on a laptop that will hopefully last several years, you need to reflect upon the fact that you're going to find those two restrictions extremely and increasingly limiting in a year or two's time.

I would urge you to bite the bullet and consider, instead, the MD761B/A version which is also available from John Lewis with the same £150 cashback, here. At least that comes with a 256 GB SSD as standard.

Both versions, the MD760B/A and the MD761B/A, when ordered from Apple, can be specified with 8 GB of RAM, instead of 4 GB. I don't know whether John Lewis can supply you with anything other than the standard specification but that's certainly something you would be wise to find out.

It would be a terrible shame to spend so much money now on something that may not be able comfortably to accommodate your needs without being very cramped in a couple of years' time.

Mr_Toad

First thing is to congratulate all who have contributed on this thread so far for not turning it into a love/hate Mac/PC thread.

I've had a MacBook Pro for several years. I made a list of requirements, size, weight, battery life, RAM, CPU etc. What I ended up with was a list of laptops ranging from £950 to £2000

As someone who works ever day on database servers running Linux I alway planed to wipe Windows from my chosen laptop and install a unix based OS.

In the end the best choice for me was the MacBook Pro and it meant that I didn't need to wipe the OS.

The main question you need to ask is can you do everything you need on a Mac or do you need to use a particular bit of software that is Windows only? You can run Windows on a MacBook but it might be better to go with a Windows laptop if this is the case.

iris

maggiesoop wrote: »

Thanks to all. I'm thinking of getting a new Apple MacBook from John Lewis who are charging £949 for their MacBook Air MD760B/A with £150 cashback when I trade in my laptop. Does anyone know of any better offers?

£816 on the Apple site with £70 apps free


http://store.apple.com/uk_edu_5000715

Don't forget TCB

libra10

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a Macbook Pro 13.3 8GB memory, 750 hard disc laptop, from John Lewis.

I had £500 John Lewis vouchers which helped pay the cost of £1250, leaving £750 to pay.

The laptop is the best I've ever owned, previously owned 4 Sony Vaios, which were also great machines, it was Windows (I think) which slowed the systems down.

My personal experiences are that you need to learn a completely new way of using a laptop. Think of buying a new car and the accelerator, brake, indicators, etc are not where you expect them to be. It's a learning experience!

The Macbook starts up and shuts down very quickly, and whizzes through pages (think Ferrari!)

The touchpad is amazing - no left and right side (as with a PC), scroll quickly up and down in nanoseconds! Pinch it and the picture zooms out.

You use the Command key for several functions, ie copy and paste, etc. Close the page down, using left hand red button, not right (As in Windows). The delete key doesn't work as backspace (as a PC does), although I believe there is a fix for this.

I also have Windows Office Professional and use the spreadheets considerably, am looking into whether Apple's Numbers spreadsheets will work as well.

Buy the Macbook, it's a serious machine, but take time to learn its different features.

Enjoy!

maggiesoop

As its Bank Holiday Monday decided to buy the Apple Mac Book Pro MD101/B/A at £999 from John Lewis and applied for the £150 cashback.

Can anyone suggest decent but competitive Anti Virus cover?

Thanks.

southern84

maggiesoop wrote: »

Can anyone suggest decent but competitive Anti Virus cover?

Thanks.

You don't need one... or at least i've never used it for the past 10 years.

Mr_Toad

southern84 wrote: »

You don't need one... or at least i've never used it for the past 10 years.

Not true.

While there are few Mac viruses out there they do exist, however, the main reason for having a virus checker is to remove Windows viruses from any infected files you might get so that you don't pass the virus on to another Windows user.

Sophos is free and works fine.