Maybe this will help your cause a little Mac-lorn :)
http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/20/apple-army-hackers-tech-security-cx_ag_1221army.html

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I work for a medium size engineering firm in Plano, Texas (Dallas). We have several engineers who use Macs on personal preference (I among them). We find them to be very solid, capable machines that are far more reliable than our PC counterparts. I have multiple VM images to work in various PC-only packages that don't like each other, just like I also did on my old PC. I can't recommend a Mac enough! If you would like specifics, please feel free to contact me.

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I am currently a graduate student at a large public university studying Statistical Signal Processing. I use a Macbook for all my simulations and everyday work. I am also aware of 3 professors in our group that also use various forms of a Mac. Two use a Mac Pro for simulations and the other a Macbook Pro for mobile use. Macs are everywhere here.

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I'm a Civil Engineer working with a MacBook Pro and VMware, and the author of Mastering Autocad Civil 3D. Most engineers will claim cad is the problem application tht they MUST have Wintel for, but it's simply not true. I run Autocad, Civil 3D, Google Earth (yes, I can run that on the Mac, but C3D uses the Windows side for some functions,) and a host of other applications in the virtual machine. On the days where I'm really grinding out modeling or visualization work, the ability to boot into boot camp gives me the best XP box in the office.

While there are some minor issues with firm interoperability and sharing, these are more related to oddities like mind mapping software. We share documents, spreadsheets and the like with no issues.

We also work closely with Autodesk, and I can vouch that a number of their development team members are running Mac laptops and VMWare or bootcamp to handle coding an UI issues for the Civil 3D application.

Good luck!

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We use Macs to do calculations on spinning neutron stars.

If this doesn't qualify as engineering, I don't know what is.

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Mac-lorn,
I am currently an engineering student at a Private University, and I want to let it known that I use two macs on our network, though I am a client, I know our server runs a UNIX environment, weather virtual or legit, UNIX is the way to go. Who would ever program in a Micro$oft environment, let alone run one?

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I am a computer engineering student at Stevens Institute of Technology and I use a PowerMac G5 and MacBook Pro every day for all my work. Many other students and professors here also use Macs without difficulty. When others see me with my MacBook, many express interest in the platform and often lament being unable to afford one. The know it works and that it can run Windows if need be and is a very powerful computing platform, perfect for engineering.

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Dear Auntie T

responding that a Mac Pro *is* a Windows machine is the most negative argument possible. The statement infers that one DOES, in fact, need Windows. May I suggest/request that instead you reply with some comments regarding the pro's of Mac OS X?
The lack of active positives in your response further suggests that *you* cannot think of any good arguments. I urge you to prove me wrong. Please.

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I also work in the electrical and computer engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University. You may have heard of it.

FWIW, several of our top faculty use MacBook Pros. I'd share names, but I fear that would be going too far. Tell them this is true within one of the top engineering schools in the world.

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It all really depends on what type of engineering you do. If it's CAD and design work, macs are pretty much worthless. All of the major programs are for Windows/Linux only. However, if you're working in the theoretical realm where you're using open source programs and writing most of your own code, it doesn't really matter which platform you're on, as long as it's fast.

I'm in an aerospace engineering department, and people's computers pretty much follow these lines. The more bleeding-edge theoretical guys write their own programs on their macs. Everyone that relies on commercial code uses PCs with Windows/Linux. There is no reason for them to spend the extra $2000 for a mac desktop. (a nearly-as-fast linux box can be built for 1/3 the cost of a mac pro)

Sorry everyone- I love my macbook pro, but unless you need OSX, I think the mac pros are a bit overpriced and hard to justify. When is Apple going to come out with a desktop that is expandable and NOT based on $600 processors?

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