You may not need to worry about office software or equivalents - both my daughters’ universities (Edinburgh and Aberystwyth) gave them free Office eligibility (other universities may not do the same) as did their schools before that
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Tracked changes: I suppose it depends on the course. If there a lot of essays, or a thesis, to be written tracked changes are used by supervisors or tutors to comments on drafts / versions / submissions.
I used to hate them at work but were invaluable at Uni.
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Also they are very useful if you are working collaboratively with others, for example two students working together on a project.
And in a corporate environment where someone is commenting on a document so as to allow the original drafter to quickly see the proposed changes.
I believe many universities use Office 365 and so students get free access to the software while they still have an IT account there.
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Yes many educational institutes offer this, not sure about the one the OP has mentioned. Various educational benefits/offers are mentioned in Microsoft literature. I believe they now call their productivity collection of products Microsoft 365.
IrfanView - that’s a blast from the past - great little app before I shifted to Macs.
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Just checked with my 4th year Med student son.
He has a Mac Book Pro. No problems… 
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I seem to use it most days…still kept current with revisions every six months or so…
And there is unfortunately no sensible equivalent in the Mac world that I found - have you a Mac alternative?
As have said, I avoid microsoft as far as possible (last Friday events add to my stance…) and of course they offer free or highly discounted access to office 365 for students, catch them while they are young eh…good capitalist marketing…
Lightweight apps, and or portable apps are the way to go…
And Atlantis for word processing…program is updated frequently and the developers are responsive to user feature requests.
Personally for hardware I use both Mac (latest OS) and Intel NUC (with Win Pro 11 as the OS)
For software I have a Microsoft 365 subscription loaded on all my machines including a virtual machine within my Mac, mostly personal use within the whole family. I also use small dedicated packages as and when required eg Asset and Minim across both hardware platforms. The organisation I volunteer for use Google Workspace and a small number of non mainstream packages.
I am therefore not saying any one product hardware or software is hugely better than any other. I go with the one that does what I want and need it to, including budget, or am told to by employer.
The reason I have mentioned compatibility across platforms is that in today’s world where there is so much choice of capability, there is a need to ensure that documents/data etc are displayed accurately across all platforms. Appreciate that the OP has indicated that he has this covered for word processing, I assume other productivity tools are similarly covered.
Finally would just like to say that from what I have read the IT problems from earlier this week are not a Microsoft caused problem but were in fact caused by a cyber security firm issuing an update. Potentially without sufficient testing before release, sound familiar without mentioning new Naim website. I do accept that the impact of IT issues earlier this week is much higher and wider.
Think I’m going on a bit too much now so I’ll bow out. I wish the OP all the best in meeting his requirement.
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Yes, agreed not a microsoft problem, but it was a problem that only affected the microsoft platform, and linux and mac os were not affected.
I would add, as I have already said, pdf files are cross platform by the nature of being portable document format files, and their intention is to be accessible across platforms. Does require a little more expertise and understanding than the google and microsoft cloud based way of working, which is maybe easier and requires less understanding, but I might suggest promotes lazy habits, and reduces expertise and ability. Also adds too much investment into a few companies who will not have the interests of the folks at the bottom of the pile.
It should be also noted that Cloudstrike software in question is mainly used by large organisations and update gone wrong did not impact private Windows users.
You are correct PDF does require a bit more care in workflow etc, even PDF is becoming more complex, and yes I do use PDF formats myself.
The Adobe PDF site itself gives briefs on this:
https://www.adobe.com/uk/acrobat/resources/document-files/pdf-types.html
In summary there are nine different PDF types, seven of these are based on ISO standards:
Way off topic now so let’s maybe get back to what the OP originally asked advice on, which I believe was more about which laptop (Mac) to go for.
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I have it on good authority that the issue was with a blank ‘signatures’ file. Clearly a failure in quality control.
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Because private users cannot afford the cost of cloudstrike protection of the microsoft platform…
… and no need for that.
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is it not true…
If opting for a Windows laptop, I’d recommend choosing an enterprise spec machine such as a HP Elitebook over a consumer grade machine - they typically have much better build quality, designed for daily mobile use over long periods of time. My previous corporate HP Elitebook lasted over 5 years, and was still functional when it was replaced. Refurbished machines are available at competitive prices from a number of companies also.
Then I guess a MacBook Air or Pro would be suitable.
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I agree completely with this. If you spend the same money, you will get as good if not s better laptop from Dell. And they are easier to integrate into business working situations.
If you are in an Art program, studying CGI or designing literature or websites for people, then a Mac is surely the way to go.
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Something that I think no-one has commented on is the “Dad it’s not working properly!” scenario.
I recall my two daughters at Uni and it was a constant niggle that one would ring us up and suddenly I had an IT problem to solve.
If you buy her a Mac, especially if you pay for Apple support too, then you buy your way out of that situation before it happens. I highly commend thinking about those situations now rather than later!
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One thing to remember, Macs are more than just tools to get job done. Lifestyle aspect is important too and nothing wrong with that. Young people (and sometimes older too) want to blend in and at school and in Uni that can be even useful.
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