he'll literally have the best of both worlds. And with MacKeeper, he won't have to pay more than $29.00 for virus protection.


rocktivity

macs are grossly overpriced; their attitude towards incompatible connectors flat-out sux; and the latest macbooks seem impossible to upgrade yourself

i say this as a person who owns over five mac boxes of at least three different kinds

i like and use the macs i've got, but i'm not buying more -- from now on, i'm going the route of cheap machines with linux

get a second hand thinkpad, put linux on it.

Apple products are now made to be non-recyclable.

http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2012/07/06/apple-removes-green-electronics-certification-from-products/

This also makes it tough to repair, so the item will be discarded, i.e. landfilled, far sooner than an item which can have parts changed out if they go bad.

Do not get me wrong, I was roped in by the Apple bling too. I had an iPhone 2nd gen for about 3 years. I did purchase it second hand. I purchase as much second hand as possible, to help with environmental waste. Also, to save money. My iPhone battery is now dead. What should I do with it? It can not be recycled easily since it is epoxied together. I will probably try to sell it for parts. Much of it will still be dumpstered. My phone was one of the most expensive electronic purchases I have made, but it's lifespan was shorter than any other piece of electronics I have owned. I still have good functioning systems from the 90s that are fully capable of any typical activity that users need. My 3 y/o son has a Apple clamshell g3 that I have loaded with educational software. With Moore's law, we reached a point where 5-6 y/o hardware still has much more power than a normal user will ever use.

An Econ major needs a spreadsheet program. You could use LibreOffice. If he needs Excel, you could always use Windows in a virtualized environment to run Office.

As pretty as Apple products are, I feel bad about my purchase and the damage that I will do to the environment for making the choice of owning it.

It took me twelve years to max out my "Mac-enstein" G3.


rocktivity

Don't try to convince him, get him the PC.

If he ends up hating the macbook, you will never hear the end of it.

If he hates the Visio, then you can tell him "I told you so."

(Guessing most econ people are locked into Windows)

As in totally reformat the drive with a Windows install CD. Like you said, most econs are probably locked into Windows, it's too "businesslike" a field for anything else. Explain that you understand that, but that the quality and expected lifespan of the MB more than justifies the increased cost; best of both worlds.

Or put the $700 towards a new shiny for yourself

She wanted to get a Dell and I just told her "fine but, you're on your own with it, if it has problems, contact Dell, not me because I won't touch it"

She changed her mind pretty quick