PC or MAC laptop?

[gurshan]

Our elementary school is being provided with 5 laptops for our staff/students to use. We are given the choice of pc's or mac's and the spec's are as follows:

For the Mac: 12" iBook M9846LL/A 1.33 GHz 512/40 GB HD: DVD-ROM, CD-RW, wireless care (APX)

For the PC: 15" HP Compac Business Notebook PR124UA, Intel Celeron M360J 1.4 GHz, 256 MB DDR SDRAM (1x256MB/w 1 free slot), 40 GB 42000rpm HD, 48xCD-RW/DVD-ROM drive
We will be up-grading the RAM on the PC to the equivalent of the MAC.

Cost of each is not a concern, as the district is paying for them. Which would be a better choice? Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[Cafe_333]

Considering you mentioned elementary school, the choice is easy - go for the PC. Better support and easier to find compatible software that will work on it as well. I wouldn't suggest a MAC unless a person knew what they were doing on it. Plus the PC laptop has a bigger lcd screen providing better ease of use for educational purposes.

[nfs2]

I disagree. From the laptops you mentioned the iBook wins hands down. I mean come on, an HP celeron vs a new iBook?

iBooks are very popular with schools because they are so reliable and Mac OS is easy to use. Mac isn't some obscure linux, you dont need to be a pro to use it.

I cant even believe theres a debate here

EDIT..

If this were vs say, a thinkpad, my answer *might* be different. But that HP laptop is junk.

[itsmypostoffice]

take time to consider TDSB's licensing agreements with manufacturers & software distributors. what is the final licensing cost to get these laptops into classrooms? will school funds cover upgrades and new licensing? often, it's not the best machine that wins out but a large number of competing factors and existing agreements.

EDIT: does your school have a designated IT contact person? does s/he have time & resources to support and maintain your new purchase? furthermore, how will these laptops compliment your current curriculum? processing speed is not an issue because you can purchase desktops for improved savings.

[MrWizard]

The HP laptop may be junk, but it is for an elementary school, so you don't really need high-end performance. Given that most of the kids and staff have windows machines at home, I would say go with the Compaq. The Apple IS a better machine, but a lot of people are probably not familiar with the OS, and while it isn't rocket science, it does take some getting used to.

If the laptop is going to be moved around and not be near a wall socket, the Apple is probably a better choice because of the better battery life, but if the laptop is going to be away from a wall for less than 2 hours, the HP is fine.

[Double_H_F]

Alienware with dual monitors on each one.

[BeaverLiquor]

out of those i'd take the ibook any day

but for a windows based machine how aboot a thinkpad? since rugrats are going to use it also.

[Oversized Rooster]

It only makes sense to use PC machines throughout the education system. This is what students will have to use later on in life anyway. Let's face it - aside from the handfull of Mac-lovers, everybody uses PCs.

Say you go work for CIBC, or a brick-layer...they will both be using PCs as you very well know. The day when larger companies start using Macs is the day when you should switch.

Until then, only use one if it's your hobby. Else, a PC will do you much more good in any other situation. Let's not even talk about software support and general compatability.

The argument that Macs are stable is irrelevant in this case. These laptops will be running at most MS Word and Sesame Street stuff. Windows can easily handle that without dying.

[nfs2]

But its not like they want these laptops to teach kids how to use computers! This isnt 1995, every one of those kids already has a windows box at home.. Im assuming they want to do their schoolwork on them (book reports, taking notes or whatever else) and the point is NOT to teach them how to use a computer. The added experiance using a mac would be just another plus

I do own a mac but im not a fanboy, id actually rather a thinkpad over an ibook, but in this specific case the ibook wins.

[gurshan]

Wow, I appreciate all the responses! Our school has a mac lab with 25 e-macs for classroom use as well as older macs and pcs in each of the classrooms. So although most of the kids have pc's at home, most are also familiar with the mac OS. We als have a technical person who comes to service the computers when we need so thats not a problem.

The students will use computers for basics such as websurfing, word processing, etc, but also for video/photo editing as we have bought new equipment for that.

My preference is for PC's because of my comfort level, however many of the teachers are more comfortable with mac because they are mainly used in our school district. I'm more curious as to what will get better performance both long term and short term and which might be more easily upgradeable in the future. Thanks again.

[nfs2]

The HP just sucks! Man im sorry but really, im gonna feel really bad for those kids if they end up with it.

Are there no other windows alternatives? I mean seriously, if you try video editing on a 1.4ghz celeron.. Well it aint happenin.

[supernerd]

The HP just sucks! Man im sorry but really, im gonna feel really bad for those kids if they end up with it.

Are there no other windows alternatives? I mean seriously, if you try video editing on a 1.4ghz celeron.. Well it aint happenin.

The build quality of HP laptops usually sucks, but I wouldn't dismiss it just because of the cpu. The celeron M 1.4 has the exact same processing power (just less L2 cache) as a Pentium M 1.4, which is pretty much on par with the G4 1.33.

although really, i dont think hardware is an issue for either machine (both have comparable performance, and both are laptops so upgradability is limited on both). you should probably base your decision on how the machines will be used, how it will inter-operate with your existing systems, and if the applications you need/want are available on either machine.

[Evil Baby]

I voted pc not actually looking at what you had posted, but after seeing the two optoins I would have to say go for the ibook and I hate macs.

The macs are going to become a lot les bogged down with spyware/virus's than the HP's.

I dont' know if Encarta would run on the mac, I assume it would but if not that is the only advantage I could possibly see, unless you wanted to use open office instead of MS office.

[batcave]

Mac all the way!

It's a consumer device and its used for what it was made for.

Here's an article about Mac from the wsj:

http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20051130.html

[Groovetube]

both are good pieces of hardware (not 100% sure on HP but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt) but OS wise, the mac by leaps and bounds. Far less time fooling with anitivirus this and that, spyware this blah blah, windows is far easier to screw around than OS X, there's less problems in general. I don't know of too much in the way of software that can't be had on mac. I run both platforms in my shop, and I'll give you one guess which is the most reliable and has the most software. By a mile.