should i go with a dell or apple

It's very clear to me that a MacBook is an ideal computer for you. It will perform all the things you had questions about.

Papers for school no problem - use Appleworks, Textedit, Pages or $MS Office for Mac.

Macs are EXTREMELY easy to learn and use.

Photo and video editing work is what Macs do best.

If you need one today then buy one and don't wait or bother about future upgrades to the model line.

MacBooks are quality computers (most of them anyway). Mac OS X is a really great opperating system. It's easier to use than Windows and much more stable too. You should have no problem using a Mac with your existing router and printer/file sharing with Windows computers over a network is fairly easy too. Plus, Mac OS X includes most of the software you'd ever need.

All Macs include iLife, which means that you would get iPhoto and iMovie (among other applications). iMovie is great for video editing and iPhoto is fairly rubust too (though it focuses more on organizing pictures than editing it, you can still adjust a lot of hue settings, crop, and even retouch your pictures.

iWork is a fairly robust software package and should handle your school work. If you need to send/receive Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files, iWork can handle it (though there are some occasional glitches). If you need better compatability, I reccommend Microsoft Office: Student/Teacher Edition ($150 with a rebate) or NeoOffice (free from http://www.neooffice.com )

The MacBook you described should have plenty of power and should handle everything you could ever want to do, most of it with the included software.

That said, a Dell would have some advantages. You could probably get a laptop with a 15.4" widescreen display from Dell for the same price as the 13.3" MacBook. Also, Windows will ensure better compatability with the rest of the world and you'll be able to play PC games (if you're into that sort of thing).

Unfortunately, I have to say it, DO NOT buy a Macbook. I waited a month to get mine back from repair due to a discolored bezel and a bad logic board. No one should have to go through what I did in terms of customer service. To add to everything, the day I got it back I installed the PRAM upgrade and now my machine won't start 3/4 of the time without me resetting the machine with alt-apple-p-r. Apple better get their quality control in order in both the hardware and software departments.

Honestly, I wouldn't get a Dell; the build quality isn't that great. Toshiba and Samsung make some nice laptops these days though.

White Macbook Dual 2.0 Ghz / 512MB RAM

Stick with MB. Dell is good. I am sure if you went to Dell's website forums you'll find lots of complaints. A majority of people have great experiences with there MB's. Don't let sour grapes ruin your wine.

The choice is yours to make, just don't expect you will be doing magic in short period of time, but you might.

Some switcher just can get into the mac os x behaviour and become frustated and not patience enough and express their anger in here without givin' chance to other for help.

You can see a lot of complaint and technical difficulty in here since this is a support forum for everybody that need help from other.

Too bad some user just use it to sell other pc brand and put a bad name on apple.

For doing photo and video editing I love iLife '06, and it serve me well with output quality of semi pro. And remember that apple have been used for printing industry since the begining of its early product as standard.

So good Luck with your decision.

Peace out.

im telling the truth nothing but the truth
ban me i don't care about it

its true that apple center doesn't exist in jakarta, indonesia. but authorized service center do exists here ladies & gentleman

twice my main board replaced at PADI (padang digital indonesia)
and last one (which i very recommend) replaced at MacData http://www.macdatanet.com

on the url above, you can find the contact number, ask for Mr. Yansi from the service department. ask him about felix's 3rd motherboard replacement macbook.

dont be such a blind loyal faith customer, just put my position in yours, and you will be so upset either.

the thread starter asking about dell or mac, i would say dell. trying to be stay in the question.
but my personal opinion is toshiba.

I know PADI, my brother at Bogor is one of their customer for plotter.

Sorry to hear that problem, but the way you express your frustation is not appropriate for this is a support forum and not a feed back forum.

If you expressed it more politely things might have differ respond.

And I did in your position dealing with Macindo back when I was in Jakarta several years ago, with my powerbook 1400c/166 issue, but I still give apple chance and still using apple product until now.

And for dell thing, you right to stay in the question frame, but it doesn't give you rights to use inappropriate language in this forum nor to urge user to lie (water spilled thread) and embarassed himself because of your anger and frustation.

Hope you resolved your problem with PADI or macdatanet on your MacBook

Selamat and Damai.

ps: you have the same opinion as me on "pc laptop"

I'm afraid a number of posters don't get that most MacBooks by far don't randomly shut down or panic because if a large enough number did than Apple would know exactly what the problem is. The discolored palm area was taken care of because it was demonstrably a problem that affected a large percentage of users of the early week productions. If random shutdowns affected people in a consistent manner, they would have a script to read and could tell you what the problem is and what needs to be done.

All computer makes and models have problems but Apple products consistently in surveys - real statistically valid numbers not personal anecdotes - are more reliable and last longer.

Why would you wait for upgrades to the MacBook? The machine as is will be more than enough computer. I would consider whether you need MS Office rather than iWork. I use Pages sometimes and like its usability - except for the typing speed issue - but its compatability with Word is a little clumsy. If you can get an educational price, Office is as low as $79 with a license for one desktop and one notebook (or $99 for 3 licenses). I'm not shilling for MS, just asking what you need.

Okay, so it's obvious that some people are frustrated with the whole MacBook/Apple experience...but it's okay

So maybe fekimoki does belong in a Dell forum, but at least he's providing some sort of input from "the windows side".

Parker731, I was in the same situation as you just a few months ago. I'm a new college student, and I was making the choice whether to stick with Windows or whether to purchase my first Apple computer. Needles to say, I went ahead and purchased a Macbook, and it's awesome. I can honestly say that I'm never going back to Windows again.

Of course, it's not for everyone. However, based on your questions, it seems like a good choice. My 2.0GHz 80GB Macbook (similar to the one you're considering buying, minus the iwork) is great for photos, videos and school papers, and is extemely easy to get used to. I wouldn't know about the router, though; I use a netgear, but linksys should be okay.

You're hearing about a lot of problems in these forums, but don't let it discourage you. The people with the problems are the ones who turn to the forums for help, and they represent a small minorty of the millions of users worldwide.

Or, buying a Windows computer is always an option. Not exactly preferred in these Apple forums, but the choice is COMPLETELY YOURS! However, like most of the others here, I would recommend a Toshiba as opposed to a Dell. The price of the Dell right now might look attractive with all the school specials going on, etc. But if you go the windows route, Toshiba's quality is superior to Dell's and you'll be glad you picked it instead.

Best of luck!

speaking of photo editing, i dont know how to make the pictures appear bigger on the screen. is there a way to do that on iphoto or do i have to do that somewhere else?

if you mean to see it bigger, there is a slider on the bottom that can make the way you see it as a single photo, 2 row or 3 row photo, etc.

But if you mean to change the image size, you can use export, and export and select the size or for what you want to export it.

It is not as image sizing at photoshop, but it served it purpose.

Good Luck.

I've used both Macs and Dells (never owned one, just used them at work and school). Both seem to be good machines, but OSX is more stable and the macbook has far better battery life and power.

If your look for a cheep machine, go for dell. You will get only and Intel Celron or Intel Centrino Processor. Not much power, but you get good battery life. If you want power and battery life, go for the macbook.

What ever you do go for an Intel processor, AMD generate far more heat than an Intel Machine.

Go with the Macbook. I just bought my first Mac. I researched it for a couple of years before making the switch. I bought the 2.0 GHZ White. It is an awesome machine. Mine is a week 29 and has had no problems. In fact, I haven't heard of anyone with a later week who has the shutdown issue. Obviously, there are those who have issues, but the initial shutdown, discoloration, moo, whine, problems are taken care of.

As for its use. Mac OS X is easy to learn. The greatest part is the integration. Everything in the Mac works seamlessly. There are so many cool features. Also, you can run Windows on your Mac in several differnt ways. We just switched to Macs in my office (a small church). But, our bookkeeping software must run off Windows. No problem. We just kept the old Dell and connect to it with Remote Desktop Connection. I can run the Dell through my Mac. You could also go the Bootcamp route, or the Parallels root.

I have been surprised at how easy it has been to make the switch. There are no known viruses. I can run Windows through my Mac. Everything is user friendly. It is seemless with iLife. Widgets in Dashboard is so cool. It has a built in isight camera. It comes with a remote that you can use to control music, slideshows, Keynote (Mac's Powerpoint), and dvds. It looks sweet.

No brainer. Go with the Mac.

I too have to recommend the MacBook. Mine has been perfect, no problems- I believe that most of them are. Most on these forums will agree.

Also, having owned more than 10 dos/windows based laptops, I can tell you that you will have a much better experience maintaining your MacBook. Windows-based PC's have terrible issues with viruses, fragmentation and other problems that make them run slower and slower as time goes on- you simiply won't have those issues with your MacBook because of it's strong ties to Unix.

AND, you will find that OSX is by far the easiest operating system to use on the planet, bar none. Especially for video editing and graphics.

Last but not least, the resale on your Mac will be much better than any Dell that you could get. Not that you'll ever want to part with it, but it's good to know.

I will have to say the Mac. I have a week 29 MacBook and it runs great. NO Problems on my machine either and to be perfectly honest I think that office for Mac is better than office for windows at least aesthetically. OS X has a built in Dictionary which is pretty sweet in my mind. Also check on campus if u can get a deal on software. I attend Texas A&M and they hooked me up with Office 2004 for 10 bucks!!!!