since it should be able to run both OS.
There are many bennies to mac, Ease of use, Security, The extra time you have when you don't need to tweak your OS constantly. I bought an iBook 10 months ago and had it updated and running in a half hour. I bought a win tower after Thanksgiving and it took me all night (about 4 hours) to run updates and patches... now I only spend about 2 hours a week running spy ware detectors and antivirus (yes, some of its automated but still annoying). Yes, Mac OS takes some time getting used to. Often times you will access a drop down menu and adjust a preference and then ask yourself " That's it?" because it seems too easy. You will cruise the web and wonder why you aren't getting virus warnings. You will have 5 programs running at once and wait for the screen to crash... and wait some more... Macs are not perfect and they can't do everything a WinBox can do, but they are a lot less work than windows.
Best bet is to find someone with a mac and take it for a test drive, then talk to the mac owner about the things you need it to do and ask for a demonstration.
The real question is this... Since it's for school, will your degree require software that only runs on Windows like cetain CAD and other architectural/scientific programs? If so the get the Win Box.
good luck
grim
I posted a similiar question in the Notebook forum but I wanted some "Mac people's" opinions.
I'll be going off to college in the Fall and am majoring in Political Science and my parents are getting me a notebook. I am divided between a Dell 700m/710m and an 12" or 15" Powerbook. I won't need it to play games so that's not a concern.
My quandary is how long it would take for me to adjust to OS X, I know XP pretty much in and out so I've become pretty used to it. A person in the notebook forum said that since most other people have PC's (other students, professors, etc.) I should go that route.
On a final note, I am going to wait till the Intel Macs and the new Pentium M chip is out before I make my final decision.
Thanks,
Alex

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