Another PC v's Mac thread

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My 15yr daughter has just signed up for the Photography course as part of her sixth form plans which I am very pleased about. The problem is they use Macs and at home she has a PC. I was wondering if I would be better to buy her a Mac or to teach her at home using a PC as I have very little experience with a Mac but am quite advanced with the PC. I don't want her to get rid of the PC as there are a lot of other things I can teach her on there having an IT background. I have looked into adding the Mac to the network and it doesn't seem overly complicated so thats not a problem. I don't want to force my way of doing things onto her if there are better ways of doing it.
I was thinking of getting her a Mac book but boy are they expensive, I already have to get her a 35mm and digital slr so would like to keep costs down a bit if possible.
Any advice would be welcomed
 
stick with what you've got, she'll use the macs at college and pick that up and still be able to use your pc's at home, there won't be any particular benefit to adding a mac to your collection imo.

the apps work the same generally just each os has it's quirks but she'll pick those up quickly anyhow and you can save yourself some money

it's like saying i've got a nikon but the school uses canon so should i add a canon to our camera collection...they both do the same thing
 
If they are using Macs at college then it might be better for her to use a mac to do things at home too - but it is possible to use the same software on windows that they will use. You will of course have to get that software for windows, where as if she has a mac already she may be able to get the software from the college for her working purposes.
 
She is a very arty girl and shows a lot of talent for both photography and PS so I would love her to pursue this as a career, I guess I need to research which platform the workplace she would be entering is most likely to use and go with that one.
I have no preference other than I have always worked with PC's, I guess if its going to help her I will find the cash. I know the Mac uses different shortcut key combinations and don't want her to have to learn two lots.
 
I have both Mac and PC. Lightroom, Photoshop are very similar on both. You just have to remember some keyboard differences. CMD rather than CTRL, plus the @ is in a different place.

A Mac would be nice but I wouldn't think the extra cost is worth it.

And don't forget the Adobe student discount!!!!!!
 
Student discount, i didn't know about that! Up to 80% off it says, am looking now but it seems she would be eligible. Brilliant stuff thanks!
 
You can get CS4 for a much reduced rate - £155 for the student licensed version!! :)
 
I'm still on CS3, maybe I should sign up for a night course :)
 
For photography/design Macs are way more common. If she is using PS it is pretty much the same on either platform, the keyboard shortcuts are also the same just CMD instead of CTRL.
 
I am very pro Mac, as it has worked out so nicely for me. However if you are good with PC's then there is less reason to switch.
I can reinforce chappers comments, photoshop is very similar on both platforms so I doubt she'll have a problem switching between home and college.
If you do decide to get a Mac, you can get a student discount on that as well. If you have a few odds and sods (peripherals) lying around you could get a Mac Mini for a real good price on the discount scheme.
 
I think the mac is going to be a used one from ebay or the likes, the wife and I have budgeted £2000 for everything she needs (her grandma is helping out with some of it too)
Now i need to research macs and what i am going to need there. To be honest i think the mac will have less distractions for her as her PC is a media center one full of music, games and video so she may be less tempted using a Mac with only the software for her course on it. Thanks for all the very useful advice folks!
 
Any suggestions on a baseline mac book with enough clout to run CS4 comfortably?
 
macbook pro mid range model i reckon - but think the powerbook high end might suffice?
 
A Mac Mini would be fine, plug into the peripherals from existing PC.
 
ianm79 said:
she can't take a mac mini to college but yeah
Click to expand...

May not need to take the Mac with her, possibly just need to take the files, via DVD/ USB drive or External HD
 
Or email/store in "The cloud"
 
I have a 16gb pen drive here so that is an option, would still have to get a monitor switchbox though I guess
 
She does have a decent dual core PC that should run PS with no issues and she also has access to my laptop if need be.
 
wail is selling a decent macbook with a large high speed drive in the for sale section that would be a good purchase!

I was in the same position as you when my daughter started at college. We went to the Apple store to check out a mac mini and ended up switching to macs. She would get by using the macs at college and pc at home if she is pretty good with computers but if not then it could be quite confusing.

If you are on a serious budget: MacOS is much more efficient than windows and you can even use an older machine for some recent software. You could for example run MacOS Leopard (the latest version) easily on a 1.4GHz machine with 2Gb of Ram. You could pick up an eMac of than spec for about £120.

The student discount is 5%-18% or thereabouts with the larger discounts on the more expensive stuff! The mini for example will still cost you £380 but there is likely to be a new one VERY soon which (as it has not been updated for more than 2 years) is likely to be vastly improved) so if this is your bag then wait. You can also pick up a white polycarbonate macbook NEW for about £550 with the student discount and the latest model has proper nvidia graphics, 2Gb ram, 120gb HD etc.

Adobe's student discount is SERIOUSLY good too check out: http://www.student-software.co.uk/
 
Well I'm sick of looking now and have decided to stick with the PC for the time being and see how she gets on, I may get her a cheap laptop to tide her over. If its not working out I will look at Macs again. Thanks for all the replies folks
 
On the other end of this story, I started college a not very long ago and on my media A level (leading on to the media technology course I'm on now at uni) found myself lost in a sea of Mac, but stuck with having my (comparatively most uncool) beige PC back home.

I wouldn't worry 'too' much about specifically needing a mac at home unless she wants one more than whatever PC she has now; I found that once I got over the Ctrl = right mouse button, Apple key = control key thing it wasn't too hard to get used to the differences between them, and it doesn't really make any difference to the sort of stuff she'd most likely be learning whether it's done on a mac or a PC (however apple specific software is a point) workflow, techniques, the like.
 
Hi

Anyone who says its not worth changing has never used a mac. This is from someone who until last weekend had never used one. For the past 21 years I have used PCs including at one time building them for a profit.

Last weekend I bought a mac mini from one of the Talk members. The following day my pc stalled and locked up. I was in a rush to print out a 72 inch x 24 inch print. So that was the mac mini's first job and it did it perfectly.

There are plenty of mac-minis for sale on ebay for circa £200 - £300, often with PS but as said earlier with student discount it might be worth considering buying the latest version. This 2004 mac mini with 1 gig of ram and 1.42 processor works better than my 6 month old PC with 3 gigs of ram - set her off right now. Next weekend go to Focus, there are Macs everywhere

stew
 
I use CS3 both at work on a PC and home on a mac and find them equally capable at running the application. There are only a handful of different shortcuts combinations as has been mentioned, though these are easy to pick up.

However, knowing how to manage files and doing other things for photography outside of Photoshop, it would be easier to learn just one platform. Knowing both platforms, however, gives one a more rounded and robust experience.

I personally prefer using a mac, but I don't 'hate' using a PC...
 
Thanks guys, I am going to speak to her Tutors tomorrow and see what they have to offer on the subject.
 
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