Quote:
Originally posted by Rudey
Please don't offer computer advice if you don't know about it. At the very least, read what others wrote.
-Rudey
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Well...
Being the computer geek that I am and have been since 1981, and having had recent experience with a friend with a brand new Mac laptop (OS X) that had noting but issues getting networked at Marquette for the better part of a semester...
I may be slightly biased since all I had to do was email the help desk for a network key for my PC laptop. As I stated, I'm a comp geek and can work network settings, etc. pretty well. dealing with configuration settings, etc. is pretty much second nature after all this time. My Mac experience is pretty extensive as well as my PC experience.
I have friends with a G5, and every file they send me, every email, every little graphic, seems to have issues on both my PC at work and my PC at home. This is using the native Mac stuff that came right with they OSX system. Meanwhile, if they send it to my Marquette address, which I read on a Mac, I have zero issues. VERY PROPRIETARY EVEN THROUGH ALL THE COMPATABILITY HYPE.
Not sure how web apps, etc. will treat a Mac. The OS X boxes in my department at Marquette don't like web based MS Outlook and have significant issues with FTP transfers in both fetch and browser windows. There are definite font and compatability issues in Word, Excel and all the populate MS software when moving between Mac and PC. (Macs and PCs have completely different architecture as to how they handle fonts.) My Mac lab at Marquette won't print anything to the network printers unless the file has been converted to a PDF first.
Macs have been, and probably always will be, the best machines out there for graphic design, video, audio, etc.
Apple is trying to take over some of the home market with some success, as a home setup can be limited to just macs and just mac networking stuff.
Interacting with the University is another matter completely.
I have zero experience with Macs running XP as native. However, I do know it's pretty new, and in general my experiences with anything new from MSRedmond is that it takes a while to get patched up to stable.
Truthfully, and waaay back to the original question, talk to your University, and in particular the Law School. What they recommend as optimal is probably best for what you will run into in their program.