MacBook Or Sony Vaio ?

Hey Guys...

my cousin wanna purchase a Sony Vaio or a MacBook .... but the only doubt in his mind is can we run Windows on a Mac ? do we require any additional hardware for it or it comes bundled with the macbook ?

sony vaio he's gettin for 55 K whereas the Mac is costing 65 K ...which 1 shud he opt for ?

Special help required from Aryayush [ Mac Genius ] & gx_saurav [ MVP ]

Thnx

BlackBerry7100g.

Yes, you can run Windows on a Mac just like on a PC. Full-fledged Windows or Windows inside Mac OS X, both are possible. There is no additional hardware required. You've to use a software called BootCamp.

All laptops have their own USP. VAIOs have chic looks. MacBook is a MacBook - white, slim with the Apple badge and some decent hardware. When you buy either of the two, you pay considerably higher (Around 10k) just for their looks. If looks do matter, go ahead with any one of the two. Otherwise, let your cousin settle with Dell's Inspiron 6400. Dell gives you the option to customize the notebook according to your needs and is much cheaper. Hope this helped.

S

You can run Windows on Mac - AFAIK, there are two main options - one is to dual boot Windows using BootCamp and the other is to use Virtual Machines through software like Parallels... In either case, you will need to get a separate copy of Windows license... (and for using Parallels, you will again have to pay extra)

Sony Vaio will probably come with the Windows license, so need for any extra purchases...

If Windows is essential, I would recommend the Sony over the Mac (of the two). As Sourabh says, it is perhaps better to go for Dell if performance is more important than looks.

Arun

There are three important things when considering a Mac:
1. Demo;
2. Demo; and
3. DEMO.

Ask your friend to ask for a demo of the MacBook and when he's done that, let him make his decision. If, for some reason, he does not like Mac OS X, there is very little reason to buy a MacBook. If he does, which he most probably will, he should go ahead and buy it. It offers great value for money (not on a price to performance scale, but on the basis of the unique pluses it offers, Mac OS X being the primary one). After he's bought it, he can download Boot Camp for free from Apple's website and dual-boot into Windows Vista/XP. Of course, he'll have to purchase Windows separately.

Another piece of advice: If he decides to go for a MacBook and it is not very urgent, November is the month he should wait for.

Let us know what he decides. If you/he have/has any Mac specific enquiry, feel free to drop me a PM.

thnx guys for ur replies.....will take the above pts. into consideration n let u know abt what i got !

btw...aryayush, y shud i wait for November ?

if im not wrong leopard is releasing november .... osx 10.5 .... but ya tell ur friend to go for a demo and tell him dont get mesmerized by the looks see if the machine does what he wants to and the way he wants it to if yes then mac is the way to go

Mac OS X 10.5 is releasing in October. If you get it now you will need to upgrade to Leopard anyway by paying for it. However in November u will get it pre-installed in Mac with integrated boot camp

My advice, don't go for any of them. If he goes to take a demo of Macbook the Apple store guys will show him only the white side of MacOS X & Macbook & not the dark side like over heating problem, non-upgradeable hardware, & hardly customisable OS.

For VAIO, well....55k is good but I would prefer Dell or HP dv6226TX unless he wants a laptop which looks good.

let it be gx if we say the truth or give our opinion they say we spread fud, we dont have rstraint we are fanboys blah blah

Non upgradable hardware? That is a problem when you buy a notebook? WOW!

The RAM and HDD on MacBooks can be upgraded and no other company lets you upgrade a lot more than that on notebooks.

the biggest advantage of Macbook is that we can run windows on it too....AFAIK, we can't run mac on a windows ..or can we ?

...

and now the pt that haunts me abt Mac is overheating as mentioned bygx_saurav ! is that true ?

and can't we customize Mac ? Aryayush , answer these please !

Thnx

BlackBerry7100g.

iMav said:
let it be gx if we say the truth or give our opinion they say we spread fud, we dont have rstraint we are fanboys blah blah

iMav is actually giving up? :shock:

I need more words in my siggy

Ontopic: Yes you can run Mac but it'd run crap and isn't worth trying on a PC

MacBook overheating? Has happened a few times, yes. But same's the case with all Laptops some time or the other. And mostly, its due to the battery. Nothing in particular to worry about, it won't explode in your face nor leave a mark in your crotch.

Gx must have had a bad experience, the other way around, I guess.

And yes, you can customize OSX with themes and etc, just as any other OS allows.

BlackBerry7100g said:
the biggest advantage of Macbook is that we can run windows on it too....AFAIK, we can't run mac on a windows ..or can we ?

and now the pt that haunts me abt Mac is overheating as mentioned bygx_saurav ! is that true ?

and can't we customize Mac ? Aryayush , answer these please !

ur asking a salesman whether his product is good or bad

what do u expect him to say he and the other mac boys have been mis-leading every1 for along time

1. mac can run on a normal pc im using it

2. overheating is a plague which has infected evry notebook ... mac books are no different but the salesmen here will differ saying their mac books get less ot as compared to others

3. customizing a mac is a pain in the @$$ its more difficult than windows ... u require 3rd party softwares, themes are less, its very difficult for some 1 to himself customize the looks

QwertyManiac said:
iMav is actually giving up?

u think after pwning these ignorant salesmen i would give up the thing is i dont want to show os x's shortcoming in every thread it becomes a fight club coz we arrogant ignorant salesmen spamming this forum

BlackBerry7100g said:
the biggest advantage of Macbook is that we can run windows on it too....AFAIK, we can't run mac on a windows ..or can we ? ...

The biggest advantage, my dear friend, is that it runs Mac OS X which a lot of people believe is the best operating system around.
The second advantage is that Mac OS X can run Mac, Windows and Linux applications as well. This is a HUGE advantage, of course.
And the third is that you can run Windows and/or Linux in a dual boot configuration also.

This is why I think there is no reason not to buy a Mac, specially a notebook.

BlackBerry7100g said:
and now the pt that haunts me abt Mac is overheating as mentioned bygx_saurav ! is that true ?

Yes, it is. Which notebook does not have heating issues? Every single one does. It is a problem that is part of the package and you just have to deal with it if you are going to buy a notebook. I have been using a MacBook Pro for the past ten months and the heat has never been unbearable. It is sometimes uncomfortably hot but no issues arise out of it. However, most of the time, it stays at room temperature. Heat won't be much of an issue, believe me. Anyway, the best solution is to use one at the store for half an hour or so and make it do some really intensive stuff. If you find it to be very uncomfortable... get a pad for the palm rest area. (And you thought I was going to suggest something completely different?

)

BlackBerry7100g said:
and can't we customize Mac ?

What is that supposed to mean? If you want to make it look like a pensieve from Harry Potter then no, it is not possible.

Could you be a bit more specific?

Feel free to badger me with more questions...

aryayush said:
The second advantage is that Mac OS X can run Mac, Windows and Linux applications as well. This is a HUGE advantage, of course.
And the third is that you can run Windows and/or Linux in a dual boot configuration also.

This is why I think there is no reason not to buy a Mac, specially a notebook.

if thats the reason u are telling people to buy mac books whats the big deal every notebook can run os x, windows, linux

S

A Mac can run Windows too, but a Windows laptop cannot run mac Os (because mac os can legally be installed on a mac only)... So, if Mac OS is a must, you should go for a MacBook...

Now, first, we should know what is your cousin planning to use the computer for... Mac has some awesome software for multimedia editing (I think), and they are not available on Windows... (ask Aryayush, nepcker and goobimama for more details and clarifications)... Other than this, if you need regular word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, browsing, etc, Mac is well-equipped to give you a lovely experience... If you need to use Windows software on a regular basis, you will have to run Windows by bootcamp or Parallels on the Mac to achieve it (but the experience may not be so good if they are graphic intensive programs, I think)...

Customising Mac - are you talking about mac the laptop or mac the os? The laptop can be customised with RAM, HDD, etc - this is basically the most other laptops will do too, so there is no difference in it... With Mac the OS, you have a different story... In Windows, you have so many customisation settings and tools that let you tweak the look and feel of the OS. AFAIK, Mac OS is not that much customisable (you have themes etc but if you are a hard core Windows user, you will know the level of customisation I am talking about), but you probably wont feel the need for it...

Some of the statements I made regarding Mac may be my preconceived notions, therefore, if there is any error in my statements, I request aryayush, nepcker, goobimama, etc to point them out...

Now, the fact that your cousin seems willing to shell out extra for the Mac seems to imply to me that he is (at least vaguely) insterested in learning about Mac... If he doesnt mind the extra cost, he can try it out... After all, he still can dual boot with Bootcamp and run Windows if he is displeased with Mac OS...

Arun

sakumar79 said:
A Mac can run Windows too, but a Windows laptop cannot run mac Os

it can run os x but u should not

u see the salesman chooses to have the language precise

sakumar79 said:
Now, first, we should know what is your cousin planning to use the computer for... Mac has some awesome software for multimedia editing (I think), and they are not available on Windows...

u r right

sakumar79 said:
Other than this, if you need regular word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, browsing, etc, Mac is well-equipped to give you a lovely experience

its not the case, not being biased for spread sheets, power point etc u will need ms office...

... and it is available for Mac OS X. So what is the issue here?

Of course, once you've used Keynote, you're going to do every single presentation of yours in Keynote. (Where by "you", I'm referring to whoever is interested in a MacBook.)

@BlackBerry7100g, sakumar79 is right. If your friend is interested in trying out something new, at no risk of losing touch with what he is familiar with, he should go ahead and buy a Mac. He will, almost certainly, prefer Mac OS X to Windows. Even if he doesn't, he can erase the OS completely and install Windows on it. He still gets to keep the beautiful box (and the Apple Remote that comes with it). All this won't happen though, because he will most certainly like OS X.

sakumar79 said:
If you need to use Windows software on a regular basis, you will have to run Windows by bootcamp or Parallels on the Mac to achieve it (but the experience may not be so good if they are graphic intensive programs, I think)...

There is a better alternative: CrossOver. This application allows you to install Windows applications on Mac OS X without the overhead of running the whole operating system. And now, with support for 3D acceleration, even graphics intensive applications run just fine on Parallels.

sakumar79 said:
With Mac the OS, you have a different story... In Windows, you have so many customisation settings and tools that let you tweak the look and feel of the OS. AFAIK, Mac OS is not that much customisable (you have themes etc but if you are a hard core Windows user, you will know the level of customisation I am talking about), but you probably wont feel the need for it...

Exactly. It is not that customisable. I mean, you can literally tear Windows apart and sew it back up. On Mac OS X, you can just do some surgery. I know what I say next will sound very fanboyish, but it is true that Mac OS X works best in its default state. Apple takes care of the tiniest of details and it shows. You will sometimes be irritated that you cannot change some little thing according to your choice, but those little things are not going to take away the value of the productive advantages of Mac OS X with incredible tools such as Exposé. It is not as customisable as Windows but in retrospect (that is, after having used a Mac for ten months), it turns out to be a very good thing. You get a rock solid and stable operating system.

Very good post, sakumar79. You are a keen learner.

@BlackBerry7100g, before making any decision, I would also recommend waiting for the July issue of the Digit magazine. Since Leopard's full feature set was announced this month, I'm expecting (read hoping) that they will reserve some white space for Apple too.

FYI, I recently got my friend a Macbook for 60k. And now I think the rate is 63k+iPod Shuffle.

Most Probably buying the Vaio ..still not decided fully

aryayush said:
The second advantage is that Mac OS X can run Mac, Windows and Linux applications as well. This is a HUGE advantage, of course.
And the third is that you can run Windows and/or Linux in a dual boot configuration also.

To be noted

1) Mac OS X runs Windows & Linux application using CrossOver & X11 which are not native & run these apps in emulation resulting in low performance. Not all games work this way either.

The Dell & HP Laptops in the same price range are not that hot. They have better vantilation.

A Mac can run Windows too, but a Windows laptop cannot run mac Os (because mac os can legally be installed on a mac only)... So, if Mac OS is a must, you should go for a MacBook...

Right said, go with Macbook only if u must need Mac OS X. A PC laptop can also install Mac OS X

Now, first, we should know what is your cousin planning to use the computer for... Mac has some awesome software for multimedia editing (I think), and they are not available on Windows... (ask Aryayush, nepcker and goobimama for more details and clarifications)

The only Multimedia software exclusive to Mac are made by Apple.

There is a better alternative: CrossOver. This application allows you to install Windows applications on Mac OS X without the overhead of running the whole operating system.

Note 2 : Crossover doesn't supports all Windows application. Only a few are supported officially.

Most Probably buying the Vaio ..still not decided fully

Even VAIO is costly, tell him to have a look at dell & HP offering.

Dell Inspiron 6400 has a nice config.....mite go wid it ...lets c..will post the result !

Sourabh bought a dell laptop recently for 55k, ask him the model number & specs.