mac compatibility in london

snort bucketsnort bucket
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
hello everyone,



i'm from singapore and intend to get a powerbook for my studies in the (london) uk, but when i went for a pre-departure talk organized by a collection of universities.

one of the parents warned against bringing over an apple macintosh because of "compatibility" issues and support problems but she wasn't specific.



now that got MY mother worried, and now she's insisting that i get a wintel machine, but that's obviously out of the question.

so the only alternative now is to find out and convince her otherwise.



my opinion is that ppl say things like "apple isn't compatible .... yada yada yada" out of ignorance and just because windows isn't compatible with os x

it means os x isn't compatible with windows. there is office x for word processing and presentations, ethernet networking sld work just fine with jaguar or panther.



i only problems i foresee is perhaps airport compatibility and as my course requires programming, the programming software.

i'll be doing ANSI C, are there os x software in the market for that program language ?

and does anyone foresee any other possible problems i might face ?



any advice is appreciated

thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    thuh freakthuh freak Posts: 2,664member
    macs are compatible, anyone saying they aren't (particularly those without examples) are speaking in fear. macs can do just about everything pcs can. the office suite is available. networking goes fine between macs and pcs. and for programming, macs can compile and run programs written in most popular programming languages, including ANSI C. you can get a c compiler from the free software foundation, or signup for a free Apple developer connection account, and download it from Apple. You can also pay some company cash for a compiler, but the fsf's compiler is really great (it's the one Apple uses). Apple also has a wonderful IDE, called Project Builder. And soon enough, the next version of PB, called XCode, will come out, and it'll be even cooler.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    stupider...likeafoxstupider...likeafox Posts: 1,618member
    You should try contacting someone who knows about your particular course. Apple's are incredibly compatible these days and anyone doing a programming course will be able to work around any problems but certain courses do demand your laptops meet certain specs and may block website access and use bizarre incompatible software. I think you would have heard about this by now though.



    First try their website, and see if they have on-line support documents. Then try contacting either tech support, your future lecturers or admin staff, or students in the years above you and get a straight answer.



    Bear in mind you'll probably have to persevere to find a Mac fan or someone with an open mind who will actually tell you the truth rather than dismiss Macs out of hand.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    gardnerjgardnerj Posts: 167member
    It's nonsense. Sure a few ISP's will say they don't support macs but as already mentioned this due to ignorance. The way i get round this is by not telling them. An ip connection is an ip connection.



    I switched at the start of the year and have only had one problem. my business online banking used certificates that could not be reproduced in OSX so i bought a copy of virtual pc. problem sorted.



    Airports? I got one shortly after i bought my 12"pb again no issues. The airport extreme card simply listens for signals. As far as i'm aware the frequencies used will remain the same which ever country your in.



    Hope this helps.
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