MacBook time, part 2

[WickerBill]

The time has come for me to purchase a computer for my daughter, who is off to college (I'm going to sit here and stare at that for a moment... when I started OC, she was six).

She is majoring in one of three digital communications fields, and the university she is attending requires (for classes tied to those majors) that half of the computer work is done on a PC, and half on a Mac, so the student is familiar with the tools and interfaces for both. While the MacBook is more expensive, it is much simpler to give her both OSX and Win experiences on the MacBook, so that's the way I'm leaning.

The question is, of course, Air or Pro? I have an Air in my possession from work, and of course it is nice to carry and look at; it honestly has plenty of horsepower for what she needs it for, too. What I gather is that if she were to get the Pro instead of the Air, she would have a faster machine, the ability to have more memory, a heavier and bulkier computer, and probably most noticeably a Retina display. She will have many computer labs to use that allow her to connect her machine to a giant, high resolution monitor, but my guess is she will do a significant amount of her work away from the labs.

All that to ask: which would you think would work best? What should I buy? The new Pros are pretty slim themselves, but they've lost their previous advantages of a built-in DVD and Ethernet port.

[KLang]

I just bought a Pro to keep at the house in CO. Mostly because of the Retina display as well as the stronger processor. I too have Windows installed in a VM so I thought the stronger processor would come in handy. The Pro also has an HDMI port which I will use. Weight of the Pro is 3.46 pounds vs. 2.96 for the Air. My wife has the Air and I don't notice the weight difference much holding both.

[nissan gtp]

Retina, 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD. 13 or 15 depending on preference. It'll easily get her all the way through 4 years. I have an Air, and the wife has a 15" MBP, and the retina display is tremendously better. Try the Apple refurb store, and try the school (they may have special deals).

[cameraman]

I've got the new top end 15" Macbook Pro and I run Windows 7 off of a boot camp partition. It makes an extremely fast and capable Windows notebook. I don't use the Parallels vm because they have a bad habit of starting up when you really don't want them to and they take a long time to shut off again. Truth be told the Macbook can shut down and restart into Windows in less time that it takes to start the vm software.

One very useful thing is to get is the Paragon drivers http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-hfs-bundle/
NTFS for Mac OS X 11 on the Mac side allows the Mac side to read and write to the Windows Boot Camp partition so you can easily move files back and forth between the sides.
HFS+ for Windows 10 is the opposite side of the coin. They sell a two pack that has both.

I live and die by that software.

I've got a nice bag that carries the charger, the super drive, the thunderbolt ethernet cable, the thunderbolt/Firewire adapter, the thunderbolt->eSATA hub and its brick, usb cable for the phone, a VGA adapter, a DVI adapter and an HDMI cable because every projector here uses a different cable:flaming: and a pile of USB sticks.............

Note that one of the main things about the Macbook Pro is the two thunderbolt ports. You can't daisychain with the ethernet adapter or the firewire adapter. The Macbook Airs have one thunderbolt port so you can't have simultaneous internet and external monitor or non-usb storage.

Also note that only the most expensive 15" Mac Pro has the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics card so that is something to think about if you foresee a lot of rendering

Although I must admit I rarely, rarely use the superdrive anymore, it is a half pound of just in case.

[TKGAngel]

Retina, 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD. 13 or 15 depending on preference. It'll easily get her all the way through 4 years. I have an Air, and the wife has a 15" MBP, and the retina display is tremendously better. Try the Apple refurb store, and try the school (they may have special deals).

Even if whatever school she's going to doesn't have special deals, her school ID (college OR high school) should get her a discount at the Apple store.

[cameraman]

In case you're wondering a

15" Macbook Pro 2.6 GHz i7 512SSD 16GB RAM $2579.00 ***that is the edu price***
thunderbolt ethernet adapter $29.99
thunderbolt firewire adapter $29.99
Superdrive $79.00
Applecare $239.00

Windows 7 Professional Full Version - if you can find it - $350
or
Windows 8.1 pro Full Version - $199.00

[cameraman]

There is an encryption problem with boot camp windows installations.

You CAN NOT use any kind of bitlocker or any other form of whole disk encryption on a OS 10.9 boot camp Windows installation. The reason is ridiculously complicated but the take home is that it just isn't possible.

Filevault II can be turned on after installing the Windows system and it will encrypt the Mac side of the machine just fine but it ignores the Windows partition. With all that running there is no way to do a whole disk encryption on the Windows partition.

Companies like Symantec who sold encryption systems for older versions can not support OS 10.9 boot camp installations.

If the machine must be fully encrypted you can't use boot camp and need to go the vm route instead.

[WickerBill]

In case you're wondering a

15" Macbook Pro

Are you suggesting a 15" vs. a 13"? The 13 seems more backpack-friendly (and wallet-friendly -- w/ the 2.4ghz, 8gb, 256gb SSD and AppleCare it is ~1750)... give me your reasons for a 15, I'm very interested

[KLang]

I don't have any issues with VMware for running Windows any any of my macs. Starts and stops whenever I tell it to.

IMO 15" is not portable. Sitting on a desk is fine but not for dragging it around to class or sitting on your lap.

WB, those are the specs of the Pro I got a couple weeks ago.

[WickerBill]

VMware

Bless you, that's some darn fine orthography there.


Agree, Fusion is near-perfect on my company Mac, so that's likely what I'll have her use on her college Mac...

[cameraman]

I use a lot of software that looks like Adobe Premier or worse.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii35/Cynops/premier1.jpg

It is hard enough to see what you are doing on a 15" screen, going smaller just makes it harder to impossible.

[Insomniac]

Lot of good stuff here. Funny what passes for portable in school today. When you carried a lot of books, the difference in weight between a 13" and 15" Retina MBP was a rounding error. ;)

I'd say buy her whichever one she wants. Worst case, she needs the other and you lose a little money. Macs keep their value well.

[WickerBill]

It is dimensions, not weight, that I'm most concerned with. I need to go hold a 15.

She will also have the option to have virtual textbooks, but there are some sizable "cons" to that.

[cameraman]

I had one of these and I'm still alive.

http://www.maclife.com/files/u307916/2012/04/ApplesBiggestMistakes/mac-portable.jpg

I think you are overly concerned about the size/weight issues.

Wandering through the medical school "library" here, the most common machines are 15" Macbooks.

"Library" is in quotes because they removed the books last year:saywhat:

[WickerBill]

(And price)

[Insomniac]

Think you'll be surprised about the size of the Retina MBPs. They are noticeably smaller (in every dimension) than their non-Retina counterparts.