“In a few months, nearly 3 million freshmen will head off to college. Included in the gear most of them lug along will be a computer, often brand new. This year I have some advice for the college-bound: Unless you have a compelling reason not to go with a Mac, an Apple laptop or desktop offers the best combination of features, ease of use, and value,” Stephen H. Wildstrom writes for BusinessWeek. “While I have been a Mac fan for years, I have never felt strongly enough to make the Mac a default recommendation. But things have changed. Mac software, both the OS X operating system and the applications such as iPhoto and GarageBand bundled with it, have gotten steadily better, while Windows seems stuck in a rut. Meanwhile, new Mac hardware based on Intel processors has erased the performance gap between Macs and products from Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and others in the Windows camp. The move to Intel also lets Macs run most Windows programs, either by rebooting using Apple’s Boot Camp software, or right on the Mac desktop using Parallels Workstation.”

MacDailyNews Take: Performance gap erased? Tell it to a Power Mac G5 Quad owner. We grow tired of the revisionists’ love for Intel. We’re not specifically targeting Wildstrom here, he’s just the one who set us off on this tangent. Many times have we heard and read, “Now, I can consider a Mac since they went Intel!” And this was even before Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop for Mac, by the way. Before the Core Duo, the PowerPC-based Macs were competitive at the very least with Intel-powered PCs. The people that lovingly accept Macs now just because they come with Intel Inside should know that they sound silly. They must be brainwashed after years of hearing Intel’s chimes in TV and radio ads. Somehow, just knowing that the processor says “Intel” instead, makes some people more accepting of Macs. To them we say that PowerPC-based Macs offered the exact same superior experience vs. Windows PCs for years and years. Yes, just before the Intel switch, the PowerPC G4 we were all stuck with in Mac portables suffered from a performance gap vs. some portable PCs, but there was no such performance gap when Apple’s first G4 PowerBooks debuted. And the G5′s inside the last Power Mac towers certainly did not have any such gap on the desktop. A Power Mac G5 Quad offers unmatched price/performance right now, today. The new processors from Intel that Apple’s using now are not Pentiums. Apple was right to switch when they did, but they were also right not to switch to Intel sooner. By the way, this is written on an Intel-powered MacBook Pro and the performance is amazing! But, those who change their opinion and accept Macs now based solely on the fact that they have “Intel Inside” are just plain silly. Now, back on-topic:

Wildstrom continues, “Students who know about Windows Vista, the first major improvement in Windows in five years, might be inclined to stick with PCs. But Vista, which won’t be out until next year, may not do much more than catch up to OS X. And before Vista ships, Apple plans to release a new version of OS X called Leopard that will likely raise the bar even higher.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "David K." for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Note: One more thing… Students: Buy a Mac get a free iPod nano.

Advertisements:
• Introducing the super-fast, blogging, podcasting, do-everything-out-of-the-box MacBook.  Starting at just $1099.
• Get the new iMac with Intel Core Duo for as low as $31 A MONTH with Free shipping!
• Get the MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo for as low as $47 A MONTH with Free Shipping!
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.