I've had a Macbook Pro for the last four years and absolutely love it; works like the day I bought it and has survived travel and being dropped numerous times. HOWEVER, when the day comes that I need to replace it, I don't think I will do it again. It seems like Apple is going further and further into the realm of proprietary equipment, such as the HDMI ports/outputs, etc. Mine is the generation before they started to really go that route, so I haven't had any issues, but from what my IT fiancee says, newer ones have become more specialized so that not only are you shelling out major dough for the computer, but also to get an adaptor so if you want to plug it in to anything besides and Apple product. If you're just doing basic stuff and school work, these days you can get a great, slim, fast PC laptop with a solid state drive for $500-$800.