Bit of advice slightly off topic

I'm currently studying for RS CCIE, I have my own lab, bought the INE workbook 1 and now I'm in the market for a new laptop, I'll buy it through my company and ideally would like to bu a Mac Pro.. Now the the question is, do any of you use a mac as your main study computer? Are there any restrictions in doing so. Would I be better served by just buying a nasty windoze laptop instead?

Any advise guys.. I took your advise on getting an iPad over a kindle.... Fantastic choice.....

Andy

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networker050184

I use Linux on my personal laptop for all my study. I don't think there is anything you'd be missing out on by going Mac.

shodown

I use a mac as my main study tool. I use the free ITerm for the majority of my IT task and use Securecrt for things that require a console. It works fine with all the INE stuff. The included notepad is good enough, but you can use text wrangler or jedit if you need a better editor. I use the built in FTP for file transfer and I do have vmware for when it doesn't work.

gorebrush

I use Windows/Linux but can't see why you'd go wrong with a Mac.

They are all nice.

rakem

For the guys with Mac books - what 'USB to RS-232' adapter do you use to connect to the console ports of your Cisco devices?

Plazma

I got a trendnet one and then one from monoprice for like $7 .. works fine across all platforms.

Zartanasaurus

If you watch the newer INE videos, you'll see they are all on Mac Books. Everyone I've met who works for Cisco also uses a Mac Book. If it's good enough for them, I think you'll manage.

Daniel333

My CCNP studies went great with my $229 celeron 15" laptop I bought from BestBuy. Tossed on Ubuntu and a SSD in there and it's worked great. I can about 4-5 routers in GNS3 with XP in virtualbox for qemu endpoints. Packet tracer works great and USB-to-serial adapters all work out of the box. Never had one that wasn't plug and go.

Visio is a serious must have for anything higher than CCNA I think. I did break down and get a technet subscription so I could install Office 2007 and Visio 2007 (wine of course).

As for tablet choice I am using last years kindle fire. Working pretty good for video watching.

For usb/serial I used this, worked great.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-to-RS232-SERIAL-9-PIN-DB9-Adapter-Cable-PDA-GPS-XP-/290695963641?pt=US_Parallel_Serial_PS_2_Cables_Adapters&hash=item43aed463f9

BeTheNetwork

I use a MacBook Pro for both work and study. It has Bootcamp, which I use mainly for office administration tasks, but all Cisco study, device access, and troubleshooting is done in OS X. Outside of Visio, there is nothing missing in OS X.

kalebksp

The only downside I could think of is that the lab uses a Windows desktop so the difference in key placement/shortcuts could slow you down slightly.

NotHackingYou

I use a MacBook Pro Retina for all my studies. Prior to the Retina I used a standard 15" macbook pro and prior to that was a 13". Never had an issue getting connected to any equipment.

cisco_trooper

All you NEED for Cisco studies is a terminal. Everything else is just personal preference. If you want a Mac for any reason, get a Mac.