I have been looking to take some web design classes at a local college and one on the colleges said they want their students to work on PC's instead of Mac's. What are your thoughts on this? I have a Mac and would rather stick with it. Why would a college specify a PC over a Mac for a web designer?
Probably due to school ICT staff preferring to deal with Windows systems. Windows machines are easier to set up on large networks and to connect to printers (apparently).
I work for a government school, and our tech hates the few of us that use Macs!
Use whatever you are comfortable using. I was forced into working on a PC at a particular firm for a few years, but that's because their entire system was set up on it. Didn't stop me from owning Macs at home and spending a few days (excitedly) working from home.
Fortunately, I know work in an office that is 100% Mac.
At the end of the day, though, it's purely personal preference. If you don't want to give up your Mac, try figuring out a solution.
If they want you to use Windows, install paralells on your Mac or just get a £200 laptop from somewhere.
I recently moved from Windows to Mac and it has made my development cycle a lot faster and so much more efficient. If they're stuck in the dark ages on their course, play along but when they're not looking, use your Mac.
your main machine should definitely be a mac, but if you need a PC i recommend buying a $200-$300 netbook. preferably one made by toshiba as theyre pretty durable compared to most other brands.
Its purely personal preference. I use a PC and so do a few others I work with, while others in my office are doing the same job using MAC's. To be honest the best thing to do is get to know both machines and OS, but its really hard to say if one is better suited for a task then another. My PC is more powerful than most macs and was half the cost.
since everyone is suggesting buying new machines, I would suggest that the college ought to be providing machines if they are going to impose a requirement on what OS students use. Are we talking about lab work or homework, here?
They should have no say about what students use on their own, as long as files can be transferred back and forth transparently. (Especially in the web design field, this shouldn't be an issue: everything can be saved as plain text.)
Personally, I would avoid a college that was trying to impose anything stricter on their students. It could indicate deeper problems in their curriculum (e.g., a faculty that doesn't know how to use not-Windows computers).
I work for a government school, and our tech hates the few of us that use Macs!
develop on Linux.
test Everywhere.
: )
that's an important consideration for backend devs; not as important for strictly front-end stuff -- as long as you test Everywhere.
It is a big deal to actually work with your code/markup, and not a WYSIWYG.
Fortunately, I know work in an office that is 100% Mac.
At the end of the day, though, it's purely personal preference. If you don't want to give up your Mac, try figuring out a solution.
I recently moved from Windows to Mac and it has made my development cycle a lot faster and so much more efficient. If they're stuck in the dark ages on their course, play along but when they're not looking, use your Mac.
They should have no say about what students use on their own, as long as files can be transferred back and forth transparently. (Especially in the web design field, this shouldn't be an issue: everything can be saved as plain text.)
Personally, I would avoid a college that was trying to impose anything stricter on their students. It could indicate deeper problems in their curriculum (e.g., a faculty that doesn't know how to use not-Windows computers).