Mossberg’s Mailbox

Choosing Between a Mac and a PC

April 3, 2008 at 12:01 am PT

There’s no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

I am going to start college in the fall and I need a laptop. Uncle Jim, who is a Mac addict, is making an argument for a MacBook with Parallels 3.0 and Windows XP installed. He said that way I would have the best of both worlds. My mom is looking at the price. She said we could get a PC for less money but I want to make sure we’re making the right decision. If money is not an issue, what is your recommendation?

Both your mom and your uncle are correct. You can indeed get a decent laptop from Dell or Hewlett-Packard for less than the $1,099 that Apple’s least expensive Mac laptop, the MacBook, costs. But, in my view, the Mac has a better, faster operating system, better built-in software, and is far less likely to expose you to viruses and other malicious software. Plus, the MacBook itself is a sturdy piece of hardware. And there’s a very good Mac version of Microsoft Office that is fully compatible with files created on the Windows version.

Your uncle is also correct that Macs can run Windows, and Windows software, quite well. However, the solution he suggests, using the Parallels software, which enables Windows use on a Mac, will add significantly to the price. Parallels costs around $60, and you also must buy a full, boxed edition of Windows XP or Vista. While prices for Windows vary, this full version (not an upgrade version) of XP can cost nearly $200, and Vista typically costs more.

So, if money really isn’t an issue, I recommend the MacBook. But, since that is rarely the case in real life, you might want to weigh the cheaper alternatives more carefully. Or, if you do buy the MacBook, I’d hold off on the Windows installation until and unless you find you need Windows programs that have no counterpart on the Mac. The average undergraduate likely won’t.

I am dissatisfied with my Internet service provider and I would like to switch to another one. If I switch, can I keep the same email address? Do I have to keep paying the old ISP if I switch and keep the email address?

It depends on your ISP. If it is America Online, you will be able to drop AOL as your ISP and continue to use your aol.com address, regardless of which provider you use to access the Internet. But, in most cases, if you are using the email address provided by your ISP, you will have to relinquish it. However, I would suggest you consider obtaining an email account that isn’t tied to an ISP, so that, if you have to change ISPs again, it won’t disrupt your email. Among such email-only services are Yahoo Mail, Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail, and Google’s Gmail.

Your column last week concerned a navigation device called Dash Express that transmits the speed and location of your car to the company for traffic information purposes. But couldn’t this capability also be misused by the company to track a driver’s whereabouts, or even help issue speeding tickets?

Theoretically, yes. But the company, Dash Navigation, says it retains no personally identifiable information on its servers, and merely collects traffic data from participating cars anonymously. A company spokeswoman says: “If the FBI came in and asked us to find someone, we would have no way of locating an individual car.”

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Tagged with AOL, Dash Express, email, Gmail, GSM, ISP, Mac, Microsoft Office, Parallels, PC, Yahoo

comments so far. Add yours.

Bob Weaver

Just a reminder that I always forget until I get my monthly tuition stmt, many colleges offer their students deep discounted pricing on Microsoft products. For example, my son, a sophomore, can buy Windows XP Pro at the campus bookstore for $10. That might help the economics your writer is considering. Also MS has a student MS Office 2007 Ultimate package for college students fro $59.95. Your writer might check it out.

I love you column, never miss it.
Roger White

Consider OpenOffice.org as an alternative to MS Office. It’s free to download and use. It is quite similar to and very compatible with Office
http://allthingsd.com/ Mark Abrams

It’s also worth noting:

- There’s no need to factor in the cost of Windows on the Mac unless you need it (e.g. if there’s some Windows-only software you need to run, like PC games)

- You can dual-boot Mac OS X and Windows out of the box via Boot Camp (Parallels/VMWare Fusion allows you run both at the same time and costs the extra $60)

- You can get a full, legal, OEM version of Vista Premium for around $120 as you’ll see if you google it (though I believe you do forfeit official customer support with an OEM version). Also, buying Windows via your college can often be purchased at a very reduced price – worth checking out.
david pales

The choice between Apple vs. MS is a bit trickier than portrayed. First, most schools support both with respectable discounts for new equipment. Apple’s software is much more affordable and almost completely compatible with MS Word — except for esoteric functions. The student support also includes site licensing for both — Apple & MS products. On the MS side, there is Open Office which is a free alternative, without the MS glitz! My son purchased a refurbished MacBook Pro directly from Apple. It was deeply discounted as a refurbished product and had a better reduction compared with the school’s pricing for Apple “direct products”. Did anyone remember “Ebay”? Both hardware and software deals are always better to the careful buyer. I’ve never had a significant Ebay problem after about $10k in purchases! The fact is that some schools “prefer” one system over the other. It’s never too late to check even after arrival at school. Just a side note about Parallels: you need a valid MS Windows license. At additional cost, even for an academic license, it’s expensive. Try iWork or OpenOffice instead. PC compatible equipment can also be purchased from most OEMs at “refurbished” rates. The advantage is that they’re guaranteed for a short time. I use both PC and MAC. I’ve found that my son’s MacBook Pro isn’t significantly better than my PowerBook G4 — apart from the CoreDuo. I recently upgraded my PC Desktop to an HP workstation with 2 Xenon processors ($500) and 4G RAM, 200GB/HDU. Vista simply flies! I use my G4 for trips, upgraded my drive to 120g, Leopard, and iWord! Both are acceptable. Both are stable. Both are “pretty” or “gooey” (GUI). Personally, I find that I like the Apple absence of intrusiveness very attractive. I intensely dislike the PC/MS overhead, but know it too well to leave it — i.e., love/hate! Botton line, buy a MAC. Yes, it’s that simple. dp
Jim Trebilcock

When you are looking for alternatives to MS Office, don’t forget NeoOffice. This is a “Mac-ified” version of OpenOffice that I find to be excellent. It handles the new docx files perfectly. Ah, yes. It is free.
ross richardson

Walt REALLY missed the boat on this one. He should have skipped the techno-speak and gone straight to the Dr. Phil playbook:

“Your uncle clearly loves you more than your mother. Holy cow – she’s shelling out tens of thousands so you can party, carouse and six or seven years later move back home. And she wants to skimp on the one part of the experience you might actually derive some value from? What is she thinking? This is a life-changing moment. She might have given birth to you, but now she’s ready to throw you under the bus. Tell her she may be condemning you to a life of pain and shame if she doesn’t cough up for the best. Not just a MacBook. Not even a MacBook Pro. You need a MacBook Air, which might just help you attract a mate well above your socio-economic status (clearly if you’re asking money questions there’s room for an upgrade). If she loves you, that MBA will be shipping post haste.”
Jim Fawcette

Re: student purchase. The first thing the student needs to do is check his courses and what software they use. For liberal arts it probably doesn’t matter, but with finance courses, lack of the “real Excel” could be a serious liability. I have a MBP with Leopard and I really like it BUT I constantly find myself going back to a old IBM Thinkpad with Vista … Mac Office is an anemic non-copy of the real Office; Entourage is weak, video’s (DRM and Java ala ATP and CNBC don’t play). software from Nokia/ Sony doesn’t work … sad.
Philip Shook

Another viable option is using online office suites such as those on Google. It has word processing, spreadsheet, calendar and such available for free online without having to download. I use a Mac Pro and sometimes use the Google site when I need to create a Word file to send.
http://www.theskinsfactory.com Jeff Schader

Personally I prefer Windows, but I’m a firm believer in a user using what they feel comfortable with. While Macs have hardly any viruses, they also have no where near the software and applications a Windows users gets to take advantage of. That being said, Walt, I’m very surprised you didn’t bring up Bootcamp, since the user wouldn’t have to pay for additional software on top of the cost of the copy of Windows. I use it on my MacBook Pro (yes i use everything) and it works almost flawlessly. It’s literally like using Windows on a Mac. Strike that… it is using Windows on Mac hardware.

Best,

Jeff
Tom May

I’m mystified by the comment in Jim Fawcette’s post regarding the “lack of the ‘real Excel’” I’ve been using Excel daily on both the Mac (at home) and PC (at work), passing the same spreadsheets back and forth. The features and functionality are essentially indistinguishable. As a CFO in my regular work, I can’t imagine how a student would be limited by the Mac version of Excel. In any case, most people aren’t aware that Excel was, in fact, developed by Microsoft for the Mac first (as a follow-on to its first spreadsheet, Multiplan. Only later was it ported to Windows (once Windows could actually handle its graphic interface). Let’s give up on the “Mac as a poor stepchild” old wives’ tales already.