getting a mac

Hey there I'm not a student but I used PC's for many years and even back when I was in school and all I can tell you is that I wish I had a Mac back then. I find because the operating system on a Mac is so user friendly and voiceover is so well intergrated it makes for a much more pleasent experience. I wish you look in whatever you decide to do and whatever route you go down.

I menat good luck not look btw lol

I can't agree more. I just got a Mac Book Air after Christmas of last year, and this is my first Mac. I am finding it very user-friendly indeed, and VoiceOver is fabulous. I assume these are good for use in school, but I don't know anyone who is a current student and uses a Mac. I'm not currently a student either, but like I said I love my Mac.

Pages is indeed quite usable. I'm in college now (studying Computer Science) and for the essays I've had to write, it's fine. Granted I'm not doing anything crazy, a few tables and text are mainly all I need. Keynote is Apple's PowerPoint, and boy, does it rock. I have professors email me PowerPoint slides and, while the rest of the class is viewing them on a projector or a screen, I have them up on my MacBook and I follow right along on my braille display. I cannot comment on Numbers, Apple's Excel, because I haven't used it for anything serious. Playing around with it, though, I can say it seems like a viable solution. Frankly, the only thing I do on Windows nowadays is gaming. There's no MUD clients on the Mac (as far as I know), and the game scene on the Mac platform is very small, so that's all I use Windows for. As such, I find a virtual machine running under VMWare Fusion sufficient for my needs. Some people make a full Windows partition and use BootCamp, though I haven't ever done this, simply because I never found myself needing it. All in all, a Mac is quite a machine. I would highly recommend it for anyone in college. I have a MacBook Pro mid 2012 model (I got it for ethernet and optical/spinning drives); newer MacBooks have absolutely insane battery life. On mine I get something like 7 hours with constant use, but newer ones reportedly get up to 12 hours, so no problems there.

Hi Paras, I have a 2011 MacBook Air and absolutely love it. I have posted on here a few times about my experiences; worth a read but I don't know how to include fancy links to them. Anyway, I find I am much more efficient on a Mac than I ever was on Windows. Firstly, you have two (three, if you count dictation) methods of input--the keyboard and the trackpad, and you can combine them to really fly. I love the form factor of my particular model, and the fact that I can run multiple operating systems on one set of hardware. I have a virtual machine under VMWare Fusion, but admittedly haven't used it much lately. This route makes it easy to transfer data back and forth between operating systems, as it does not require you to restart the computer. Since the update to iWork late last year, I have used Numbers extensively for data analysis work. Right now, editing chart info like titles and labels is not possible with VoiceOver, but I find many nice little things about Numbers that make it worth using, such as auto-read colin and row headers when you move around so you know where you are better in a spreadsheet. As a student, I think you really have to consider what you'll be studying and using a Mac for. I'm a physics major, so don't do a lot of paper writing, but there are several good word processors for the Mac besides Pages out there. And Apple will offer educational discounts to students. If you are willing to learn about VoiceOver and the Mac operating system, I say go for it. one nice thing about the Mac that can confuse people at first is there is often more than one way to accomplish a task, so it just depends on what mood you are in and what you are doing at the time. To me, this just ups the efficiency. Let us know how it goes and if you have any more questions! Chelsea

Hi. First off, I'll explain why I bought the Mac, then go intowhy I enjoy it so much. My computer was dead, and everything i looked for nothing jumped out at me, so I went with the Mac. Since i've had it, I don't think one operating syster is better then another, I do however think that windows may not be a fantastic idea, at first. The only reason is because if you use a Mac, and can't do something, you may be tempted ot switch to Windows, do it the tried and ture way, then go back to the Mac. I wish I could remember how to start the Mac in Windows but that was a Mac ago. Pages is great, and here's antoher selling point. every time you update your OS, Voice over gets updated as well. That means no more spending money on maitenance agreements, if you do that, or hoping it installs right. Of course I haven't tried fusion, that seems a little daunting to me but again I have no experience with it. I think fusion is cheaper then windows, you'll need a full copy of Windows eight, because boot camp, stopped using Windows seven. I'd say take the plunge. You'll be thrilled you did. :)

Hi Chelsea. It was exactly what I meant, but not having it on my Mac this time I'd forgotten. And thanks for figuring out I meant system not sister. Umm, guess the coffee wasn't in full mode yet. ;) I'd love to eventually get windows on here but a bit sketchy on doing it alone without sighted help.

Once you try Mac, you never go back

I have personally enjoyed doing my homework in the Mac more than I did in a Pc for a few reasons. The most important one is the fact that everything I do school wise, it syncs to all my apple devices, that is a feature that I have benefited through out my academic years. Pages and specially Keynote have done great for me and have made my life easier in class. Overall, I think that if you make the jump to a Mac you will be just fine. Another think that I have benefited from using a Mac is Apple vis and how the people in here help you out.