Mac or PC in school or in the fleet?

[openbah]

First of all, I am not wondering which is better. I prefer Macs, but I could also deal with using a PC. I own a big desktop Mac now, and am planning on getting a laptop. At school or in the fleet, has anyone ever been in a situation where a PC was necessary? What I'm wondering is, should I should buy a PC laptop just so its overall more compatible (because PCs are still more popular), or does it just not make a difference. Any Mac laptop users out there that can say they've never had a problem? In case it makes a difference, I am a Marine OCC hopeful.

Thanks for the help.

 

[nittany03]

Granted I'm technically not in "the fleet" yet, but I have never used a Mac in the training command.

 

[Brett327]

First of all, I am not wondering which is better. I prefer Macs, but I could also deal with using a PC. I own a big desktop Mac now, and am planning on getting a laptop. At school or in the fleet, has anyone ever been in a situation where a PC was necessary? What I'm wondering is, should I should buy a PC laptop just so its overall more compatible (because PCs are still more popular), or does it just not make a difference. Any Mac laptop users out there that can say they've never had a problem? In case it makes a difference, I am a Marine OCC hopeful.

Thanks for the help.

The "Fleet" is 100% PC. Having said that, you can't connect your own personal gear to any of the Navy or USMC (NMCI) networks, so what you use at home might not matter that much. As long as your Mac can deal with all the standard MS Office type files, you should be good for the majority of the work you might take home. Thing is, there are a bunch of legacy Navy programs that people use, like NAVFIT for fitreps, that I'm guessing will not work on a Mac - therein lies your dilema. I know "Macs are better at A, B, C," but I think the compatibility issues kind of nullify that advantage in the big picture view.

Brett

 

[bennett4362]

have you considered getting "virtual pc" on your mac laptop?

 

[openbah]

have you considered getting "virtual pc" on your mac laptop?

Yes, I have Virtual PC. It will solve most software compatibility issues, but I'm looking for other problems people have had using Macs (I'm fishing here). The fact that Macs get along with PCs so much better than they used to made me hesitant to ask the question. But I would rather make sure before I sink $1500 into a laptop that "won't work in X environment."

 

[T-man]

I don't know if Mac makes them, but I've actually been looking into a tablet rather than a laptop as it would take up less space, be more convenient to carry around, etc. Just thought I'd throw this out in case you haven't thought of it.

 

[Gatordev]

As a long time Mac user (let's see, how old was I in 1984...) and a PC user (games, surfing, etc), I'd say get what YOU are going to be happy using on your own time. As has been said, you're not really going to be able to plug into a military network (there's very few exceptions on the boat, but even then, it has to be another military machine). From time to time, I bring home work, and pretty much for the most part, it can be done on either the PC or the Mac. If I need to use one of those legacy programs (NavFit will the be the usual suspect), it works fine in VPC, as long as you have a way to get data to the machine (ie, no floppy). The NMCI network is supposed to have their USB ports disabled, but many are still working, especially when they have to use USB ID card readers, so moving data to a Mac w/ a thumb drive is a non-issue so far for me.

As for your offtime, if a Mac is what you prefer (games, movies, etc), then go for it. It's funny how many military people I see now w/ ibooks/powerbooks now and all thanks to the iPod.