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by **Bazza** » Sun Jan 02, 2011 6:29 pm

Hi, calling all Apple heads...

My daughter wants an Apple Laptop for UNI. Her Vista HP one is 3 YO and getting slower by the day.

From you guys on here who use one which would you recommend?

Also best buy places IF any?

TIA...

by **Rhakios** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:15 am

I have a 15" MBP, but the 13" is more portable, so perhaps better for University. My brother has one of the 13" and seems quite happy with it. The aluminium casing of the the MBP isn't prone to the same damage/cracking problems of the white polycarbonate ones (which they might, or might not, have fixed).
Your daughter will be entitled to the education discount, so unless you want a second-hand model, the Apple store is the best place to go.

by **ollie** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:46 am

One other point with Mac Book Pro (I have a work 15" which is lighter than my Alienware M15x so they're not too bad for portability) is to choose the maximum RAM & HDD options when purchasing. Apple aren't keen on letting you upgrade yourself at a later date. The batteries are also built in - no easy user replacements.

by **Rhakios** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 2:02 pm

ollie wrote:Apple aren't keen on letting you upgrade yourself at a later date.

Really? Most people on the Mac forum I visit upgrade ram for themselves, indeed advise against buying it from Apple as a system upgrade.
As for hard disk upgrades, some sites report that replacing the hard disk voids the warranty, but they look a damn sight easier to replace than the one in the old PowerBook.

by **Bazza** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:14 pm

Hi guys...

Many thanks...

Have got MacBook Pro 13" top one + Adobe Photoshop + MS
Office + 3 year warranty extension, (usually a con but for 47 quid...).

15% student discount and came to just under 1420 UKP from
the Mac Store in Leicester.

Found out where the command line/terminal is tried a few ?nix
commands so the "root" level is familiar enough.

I`ve gotta give it to Apple their GUI on it is slick.

LBNL, it made a real change to have a member of staff know
what you are talking about. The guy who served us was well
switched on... :) Unlike Staples or PC world... :(

Once again chaps many thanks for your experience and advice.

EDIT: Oh and I forgot will be getting Windows 7 soon as I saw
it working on an ACER netbook today and would like it for my
notebook.

CYA.

by **Rhakios** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:45 pm

Bazza wrote:LBNL, it made a real change to have a member of staff know
what you are talking about. The guy who served us was well
switched on... Unlike Staples or PC world...

That is the good thing about Apple stores, even the dumbest staff know a little about the product they're selling. Whereas in PCWorld, if you don't see the one sales assistant who actually knows something, then you're at the mercy of the "dunno mate" brigade.

by **ajgreeny** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:54 pm

15% student discount and came to just under 1420 UKP from
the Mac Store in Leicester.

Crikey, £1420 for a laptop; it jolly well should be good for that price!!

Presumably there was a really good reason, other than fashion and the "Apple" name to go for an apple system, instead of a top of the range linux powered laptop.

I'm just interested to know; nothing more.

by **Bazza** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 5:35 pm

Hi ajgreeny...

> Presumably there was a really good reason, other than
> fashion and the "Apple" name to go for an apple system,
> instead of a top of the range linux powered laptop.

Well her UNI use nothing but Mac base stations and laptops
so it was mainly for this reason, hundreds of them in fact. All
are less than 2 years old.

So it makes sense to keep everything similar.

Did find out that they run as "root" which is not particularly
good IMO.

So I guess the virus/malware aspect could be as bad as
Windows machines sooner or later.

Found out how to access a terminal and the ?nix commands
look familiar enough just in case she f***s it up.

by **Rhakios** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 5:44 pm

"Run as root"?

On my machine, I need to use sudo in Terminal to change system files and installers ask me for my password, much like Ubuntu really.

by **Ram** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 5:49 pm

Rhakios wrote:"Run as root"?

On my machine, I need to use sudo in Terminal to change system files and installers ask me for my password, much like Ubuntu really.

Now I see why Mark is trying to turn Ubuntu in to a MAC.

by **Rhakios** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 6:10 pm

Ram wrote:
Now I see why Mark is trying to turn Ubuntu in to a MAC.

Let's just hope that if we get Ubuntu tablets this year, that the Ubuntu devs can write an alarm clock program that works.

by **Bazza** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 6:20 pm

Hi chaps...

You are correct, I guess the guy that served me is not quite
as switched on as I thought. I guess he must have assumed
that booting into single user meant that it was at "root".
Thanks for the info guys.

I feel safer now, (after searching), that "root" access is
disabled by default.

That means my daughter can`t f**k anything up and I can
get to it at machine level when I enable it.

Anyhow thanks again guys.

This is still the most useful place for info due to the
broadband knowledge available from its users.

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