I DON'T WANT A MAC.

[chris888222]

I don't really hate Apple. I mean their products are decent, just a tad expensive.

 

[DeathStrudel]

@ everyone saying they can't make you buy a computer

Yes they can. It's a private charter school. That basically means they can do whatever the fuck they want.
They want you to buy a computer? You better do it or you probably won't be going there next year.
They say hackintosh isn't allowed? If you do it and they find out, they can kick you out and there's nothing you can do about it.

Also I'm a little surprised that not many people have heard about schools doing this before. There's at least 2 schools in my area that have required Macs since about 2004.

Sounds like they're banning it [Hackintosh] just because it has the word "hack" in its name.It's probably because it's a legal grey area and they don't even want there to be a possibility for them to get into legal trouble.

QUOTE(Slyakin @ Jun 24 2011, 09:39 PM) Wait. They are enforcing you to use a Mac and use Microsoft software on it?

...I don't even understand anymore.

Actually it's not that weird. I don't know any Mac users that use iWork, they all use MS Office. It's pretty much agreed, even in the Apple community, that Office is better.

 

[YayMii]

I don't really see how remotely virus-scanning someone's laptop is an invasion of privacy...

@DeathStrudel: It's a charter school, not a private school. There is a difference. Google it.
But the issue is that all of this year they allowed Hackintosh (for the limited amount of people who were under the Mac requirement already). My friends and I confirmed with the school last month that it was allowed next year, then on the last day of school they decided to change their minds about it. There's a possibility someone already bought a PC for Hackintosh, they would be completely out of luck right now.

The main reason why I'm so pissed off is because I don't have a working PC right now, and I was planning to use my laptop as a replacement. But I wanted something Windows, something I could use for gaming in my free time. Like an Alienware M14x (since my parents get a discount off of Dell), where I could dualboot Windows and Hackintosh, use the former OS for gaming and the latter for school. And since I still. have my previous (broken) computer, I wanted to remove the (NTFS-formatted) HDD, put it in an enclosure, salvage the files, and use it for storage. I suppose I could do that on a Mac with Bootcamp, but they're ridiculously overpriced (honestly, for $1199, would you prefer a Mac with a Core 2 Duo and a GeForce 335M, or an M14x with at least an i5 Sandy Bridge and a GeForce 540M? If I was spending that much money, I'd prefer the latter).

Oh whatever. If it's required, it's required. Nothing I can do about that (except for moving schools, which I don't want to do). Price is not that much of an issue, as my brother owes me $300+ for killing my (rather old, recently upgraded) desktop PC.

 

[Mangofett]

Since you're stuck with a Mac, here's a tip: scour Apple's refurbished section on their website. Their refurbished computers are exactly the same as new computers (they give each computer a new outer shell, check out some unboxing videos on youtube) and have prices that approach "reasonable"