Macbook Air for College
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Daughter wants a Mac laptop for college. Any suggestions?
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Uh-
Don’t?What is the need for having the MacBook?
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I suggest those Macbook models made by System76 ;).
Jokes aside, like any other computer purchase, assess the technical needs. That'll guide you to which models make sense.
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Check out the education pricing for MacBook Air.
https://www.apple.com/us-hed/shop/back-to-school -
My wife has a 13" MacBook Pro M1 and it's really nice, also cheaper than the Intel versions. If you want a Mac you might wait until the fall of this year. They are refreshing the line and looks like you get extra IO ports (HDMI, etc). But the touchbar is going away from what I've seen. So if you want the touchbar then you might need to order this gen.
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@jasgot said in Macbook Air for College:
Daughter wants a Mac laptop for college. Any suggestions?
Yes, take her to the store and buy the one she wants.
Buying an Apple product is not a technical issue that needs to be figured out. It's an emotional issue. Like a Gucci bag.
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@stacksofplates said in Macbook Air for College:
But the touchbar is going away from what I've seen.
Good. Near the end of my previous job, I was issued a MacBook Pro, and that touch bar was underwhelming at best as far as usefulness.
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@pete-s said in Macbook Air for College:
@jasgot said in Macbook Air for College:
Daughter wants a Mac laptop for college. Any suggestions?
Yes, take her to the store and buy the one she wants.
Buying an Apple product is not a technical issue that needs to be figured out. It's an emotional issue. Like a Gucci bag.
yep, exactly - this... /sigh.
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@eddiejennings said in Macbook Air for College:
@stacksofplates said in Macbook Air for College:
But the touchbar is going away from what I've seen.
Good. Near the end of my previous job, I was issued a MacBook Pro, and that touch bar was underwhelming at best as far as usefulness.
I kind of like it. It's nice to have app specific buttons sometimes. And I like the slider for volume and brightness vs just buttons. But to each their own. Would be nice if they offered a version of each.
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@jasgot said in Macbook Air for College:
Daughter wants a Mac laptop for college. Any suggestions?
What is she going for?
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@stacksofplates said in Macbook Air for College:
@jasgot said in Macbook Air for College:
Daughter wants a Mac laptop for college. Any suggestions?
What is she going for?
Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology
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@jasgot said in Macbook Air for College:
@stacksofplates said in Macbook Air for College:
@jasgot said in Macbook Air for College:
Daughter wants a Mac laptop for college. Any suggestions?
What is she going for?
Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology
IMO a Mac makes sense in that field. My wife's cousin went for something similar and they did a good bit of programming. Mostly Python but I think it's a good fit.
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@jasgot said in Macbook Air for College:
Daughter wants a Mac laptop for college. Any suggestions?
Either give it and buy it for her. Or put your foot down and don't. Those are roughly the options. LOL
What more were you looking for? Make sure it has the M1 chip. That's about it.
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@gjacobse said in Macbook Air for College:
Uh-
Don’t?What is the need for having the MacBook?
Why wouldn't you? The new MacBook crushes almost everything else. It's pricey, but really cheap given its performance.
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@scottalanmiller said in Macbook Air for College:
@gjacobse said in Macbook Air for College:
Uh-
Don’t?What is the need for having the MacBook?
Why wouldn't you? The new MacBook crushes almost everything else. It's pricey, but really cheap given its performance.
Can the M1 run ALL - 100% all mac software? if not, then I wouldn't buy it, but that's just me.
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@dashrender said in Macbook Air for College:
Can the M1 run ALL - 100% all mac software? if not, then I wouldn't buy it, but that's just me.
- That's insane. Can your Windows machine run 100% of Mac software? If not, why do you buy Windows?
- Who runs all software? The entire premise of a Chromebook is that you only need one app now, the browser, and all others are useless. It's got a huge piece of the market.
- Yes, it can. But it's ridiculous to want it to.
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@dashrender said in Macbook Air for College:
but that's just me.
Correct, this actually matters to literally no one. Being able to run some ancient app from 1992 affects nobody.
The only thing that matters to anyone is if it can do a good job for their actual workloads that they will run. Not theoretical ancient workloads that they will never encounter.
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@scottalanmiller said in Macbook Air for College:
@dashrender said in Macbook Air for College:
but that's just me.
Correct, this actually matters to literally no one. Being able to run some ancient app from 1992 affects nobody.
The only thing that matters to anyone is if it can do a good job for their actual workloads that they will run. Not theoretical ancient workloads that they will never encounter.
A better answer would have been - anything modern, written/released in the last say 10 years - yes you'll have no issues with.
you have some old legacy crap - just like windows, you'll likely have issues.
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@dashrender said in Macbook Air for College:
@scottalanmiller said in Macbook Air for College:
@dashrender said in Macbook Air for College:
but that's just me.
Correct, this actually matters to literally no one. Being able to run some ancient app from 1992 affects nobody.
The only thing that matters to anyone is if it can do a good job for their actual workloads that they will run. Not theoretical ancient workloads that they will never encounter.
A better answer would have been - anything modern, written/released in the last say 10 years - yes you'll have no issues with.
you have some old legacy crap - just like windows, you'll likely have issues.
Exactly. Why would you expect an Apple product to not run Apple software? That's a weird assumption. It's fine to ask, but this has been the single best selling computer in the last year. This is changing the entire face of IT, it is selling at such a pace. It single handedly destroying Intel's financial outlook for the year. Apple has moved architectures previously and has never left users unable to run legacy apps that are no longer maintained. Just as Windows has, albeit not as well. I guess if you are used to the Windows world, legacy support just isn't up to par with Apple and Linux and so maybe it seems like everyone does so badly, but they don't.
But the real question that I generally have is... if your product doesn't support any Mac made in the last year, doesn't that tell you that you'd better not be deploying it? That's ghost ship software for sure. Few things are more telling that you should rethink the kinds of things you want to deploy.
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@dashrender said in Macbook Air for College:
@scottalanmiller said in Macbook Air for College:
@gjacobse said in Macbook Air for College:
Uh-
Don’t?What is the need for having the MacBook?
Why wouldn't you? The new MacBook crushes almost everything else. It's pricey, but really cheap given its performance.
Can the M1 run ALL - 100% all mac software? if not, then I wouldn't buy it, but that's just me.
Yes. Rosetta will translate any Intel based apps for the m1. You won't notice any performance penalties. It really is blazing fast.
It's really nice to have fanless (or minimum fan with the pro) and have a real terminal to work with.
