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  "path": "/forum/macos-mac-apps/mac-purchase-choice-computerscience-student",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-02T18:46:30.000Z",
  "site": "https://applevis.com",
  "textContent": "Hello all,\nI hope you are all in good spirits.\nI am a high school student about to enter university for computer science and I am here for some advice on mac vs windows.\nI have experience with both, I have used a macbook pro with the m1 pro chip for a while for school work, and an intel i7 dell pc as well. At some point in my academic journey I had to start using the PC again, after using the mac when younger. Since then, I've gotten used to using Jaws for everything from work in google sweet, web tasks, basic usage of vs code, recently codex, and some commandline stuff along with windows settings and file explorer.\nThing is, I believe that although not all the issues I had with my mac are specific to that machine, some of the things i've faced seem to be things other Voiceover users do not face on their m2, m3, or m4 machines with less cores than mine. Because of this, I have the feeling that despite trying multiple times with my m1 pro, and with the understanding that voiceover is simply not great with some web tasks in Safari, and math work is not the best, that in things like development, Voiceover deserves some slack and it might just be a issue with my system.\nBecause of this, I am considering a secondary machine along side my intel i7 pc until I buy a fully upgraded system in 2 years. I also get a good chunk of funding for the purchase. I thought because many in software engineering which i will be studying use macs, I should give it a try. If I don't like it, i can sell it off when I upgrade in 2 years and use the extra cash for a good PC.\nSo my questions for you all are:\n1: For a secondary machine, should I go by a refirbished certified macBook air m3 or m4, to test voiceover again, and if I like it upgrade to a maxed out mac instead of windows in 2 years? Or should I get a Surface laptop or something else instead? I intend on trying getting windows running on the mac if i get one and also testing development tools I will need with voiceover. hopefully it is more snappy and less glitchy than my recent experiences with mac.\n2: Software engineers that have used windows or mac, do you prefer one or the other? Has it impacted your studies or job searching?\n3: Any fellow students here that could share your experiences?\nIf anyone is interested in the issues I have had, feel free to reach out. As I said, I have tried every fix i could find, that other mac users in the community gave, and that a contact at apple suggested as well. Clearly there are some things that are an issue with Voiceover globally, and others are issues only i have encountered.\nThanks",
  "title": "Mac purchase choice for computerscience student"
}