the vynsane asylum

Jodi got into Teacher's College for the fall which is great - her income will become 0 and her cost will become significant. She needs a new lerpterp. A friend of mine who owns & operates a family business just advised they've "gone apple" and have had fewer headaches. The same guy built his own pcs for years & swore apple was always too expensive for the hardware you got. Apparently that has all changed. I would likely buy a refurbed 13" imac air - 1-2 years old for around $800. Conversely, she'd wind up with whatever hp/toshiba they had on sale at bestbuy right before school starts for around $5-600. Anyone interested in providing an opinion on whether it would be worth the extra couple of hundred bucks to get her the apple?

honestly, it's all personal preference. when you say "Imac air" i'm not sure what you mean, though. there's an iMac, which is the all-in-one desktop, and a MacBook Air, which is the smallest, lightest laptop they sell. which one are you looking at?

the real question, though, is... is she familiar with Mac OSX? if not, then there's really no debate.

We got a cheap PC. She wouldn't even consider the apple based on price alone - and it was the macbook air, not the imac I was looking at. Bad lingo on my part.

The thing I like about Mac is that the hardware/software are by the same guys. If something fucks up, getting it figured out is easier.
There're minuses also, but that's a plus I like.