Apple mac mini v desktop pc for student web developer/ designer?

bgscotty

Hello!

I would be grateful for any advice/ comments:

My flatmate, who is a student web designer/ developer, is researching to buy a pc.

He is weighing up the merits of getting an Apple mac mini over an ordinary desktop pc.

He uses a lot of programmes (such as Flash, Dreamweaver etc) and currently has this software downloaded on my pc.

Can anyone give me pros versus cons of getting the Apple mac mini instead of the desktop pc (onto which he can download the necessary software)?

Also, I have a Livebox and would like to connect his pc to it (maybe wirelessly, maybe networked). Ideally, he would be hooked up to the one printer.

Are there any difficulties in connecting the Apple mac mini to the Livebox and to a network shared by my pc (which operates with Windows XP Home)?


Thank you in advance.

Scotty

isofa

You won't have any direct problems networking from the Mac side, but XP Home does have some restricted sharing settings over XP Pro, using SharePoints (free) on the Mac enables you to share more folders from the Mac side, rather than just the home/users docs folder.

No idea regarding the Livebox, but if it supports standard Windows sharing, you might be ok.

What is your friend's budget? The Mac Mini is fine for entry level, but obviously doesn't have a screen or keyboard, so you'd be better off looking at an iMac or even MacBook if you can stretch a bit extra. Or buy a more powerful Mac from the refurb zone on Apple's website/store to get a bit extra for similar money.

If you have the software on a PC, you either need to buy the Mac versions (or cross-grade), However as it's student based, you can get this software for a massive discount from Adobe or Adobe resellers. You can also install Windows XP (or other versions) on the Mac and boot it into this to use the PC versions, or buy and install Parallels Desktop or VMWare to run the PC software direct on the Mac OS system.