Apple vs Pc laptop with Windows 7

[Gizmo]

Hi all.

Could people with experience with windows 7 share their experiences of its reliability and how susceptible it is to viruses.

I am currently looking to buy a laptop. Was hoping to keep to a £1000 budget. Now I could just buy a 13" Macbook pro 2011 for £916 (i get a discount) or I could buy a dell 17" XPS for £880 with a better spec then the £1,550 15" Macbook pro 2011!!

Im really torn between the two options. Reliability is a big thing for me. My work laptop (although with XP) has had 3 viruses in 3 months which has needed IT at work to repair it. This will be my laptop and i'm not adapt at sorting out viruses.

[Sailor Charon]

It really depends what you want to do with your laptop as to what kind of spec you need. Yeah, kinda obvious, I know, but it bears repeating.
I mean, I use my Macbook for writing and surfing. The only things I'd want to put on it, in terms of games, are emulators, but since they're... dodgy, I haven't and I'm not going to. [I might possibly get CIV IV, but that's about it.] Oh, my mistake, I play Doom. No, not doom III, just the OSX version of Doom.
Oh, and I watch Chii's Sweet Home on it as well. And use it to get music on to my iPod.
[For games, I have my PS, Xbox 360, and DS, which I'm playing Final Fantasy VI on...] [I really must check out the old games on XBox Live]

[Gizmo]

well tbh most of the time it will just be surfing and music. Will be getting some recording software for basic recording but nothing requiring a high spec laptop.

I too also tend to play xbox 360 for games but i just feel that sony & dell etc just offer better laptop specs for so much less money so feel like i'm paying 50% more for an operating system that wont get viruses, which is a massive selling point but its still a kick in the nuts. i mean the 13" model still is using a 5400 rpm hardrive and low res screen. its just insulting but its the only option if I want a virus free laptop around £1000?

hence my original question. windows 7 + norton or similar = fairly safe? just wondering if the apple is only option.

[horsehead]

currently running windows 7 ultimate & have been since it came out, not 1 virus as yet! W7 is actually really, REALLY good & is everything that vista should have been....however, I want something like garage band & that's where it fails IMO.

[_tom_]

Unless you're using FCP or other mac-only software I wouldn't bother. They're overpriced for the performance you get, but do look very nice.

Been running Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) for over a year now and still not had one blue screen or virus/other annoyance. I run it on the same machine as a "hackintosh" (with a legit copy of Snow Leopard) and the performance between the two is near on identical. Preference is Windows 7 as I actually find it cleaner and easier to use.

Virus software, I don't even bother with it much any more - it just slows everything down if you have it on constantly. Do a scan probably once a month (microsoft security essentials is good and free) which never seems to pick up anything bad. I think that the "windows pcs are virus ridden" thing is blown way out of proportion! Unless you're always on dodgy sites you won't pick up a serious virus.

[Transcend]

+1 for win7

its more stable than mac from my past experiences, not a single blue screen, no viruses and its also a lot faster if the spec of the machine is right.

You also have a lot more flexibility too

[Lezard]

have you considered dual booting windows 7 and ubuntu ? I currently use ubuntu studio as my 2nd os, no need to worry about virus' and some nice music production software to boot.

[Transcend]

Really? i haven't used Ubuntu for quite a few years now i think it was on feisty fawn last time i used it and it was a bit pap for anything other than web browsing.

I may check it out again if its better now

[Lezard]

it has improved alot, although I probably wouldn't use it as my only os or for vital work applications as, although it is quite stable, a lot of IT folks these days won't touch linux with a ten foot pole.

[_tom_]

I can't get into using Ubuntu/similar. It just feels like a cheap horrible product.

[Transcend]

I can't get into using Ubuntu/similar. It just feels like a cheap horrible product.

well its is cheap being free :)

[WezV]

I have win7 home ultimate on my dell studio 17 laptop (about 12 months old), and win7 starter on a little notebook (2 months old).   Both are very reliable!

i did have one major crash on the main laptop about a month ago - but i am fairly sure it was my own fault for downloading dodgy stuff.   Even when i thought all was lost (due to me not backing up), a reinstall of win7 was damn easy compared to previous versions of windows and it automatically created a backup folder to allow me save the files i needed

its also quite a reliable gaming machine for a mid-level dell

the netbook is really snappy,  and win7 starter takes up very little room on the hard drive without feeling like its been stripped down too much... ok, not as many bells and whistles as home premium - but i never use that cr@p after the first few days anyway!

[Ol]

I can't get into using Ubuntu/similar. It just feels like a cheap horrible product.

I use Ubuntu as my main desktop.

16 virtual desktops, 20 odd applications running, including 35+ firefox tabs split over 14 firefox windows, and I haven't had to reboot in over 18 months.

ol@ol-desktop:~$uptime
13:57:34 up 579 days...
ol@ol-desktop:~$

Nice!

Ol.

[MisterMuncher]

I've been tri-booting Win7 64Ult, OSX Snow Leopard and Ubuntu on my main machine for a while now, and can honestly say most of my time is spent in Win7.

My file server and HTPC boxen are very definitely Ubuntu, though.

[Lezard]