I'm starting a CS undergrad major soon and I'm not sure what laptop to get. A lot of people say a MacBook Pro is the best bet because it's unix-based, has bash and can be used out of the box. Also, I've noticed that most people working in CS have MacBooks.
How much better is this compared to dual-booting Linux on a Windows laptop? I'm really turned off by the high prices of Apple laptops. I feel like I could instead use to get a Windows laptop with a good mobile GPU so I can play some higher-end games in my spare time.
Get whatever laptop you want man. It doesn't really matter as long as you like it and you can work with it.
>games
>>54368380
Get macbook for work/school
Build desktop for gayming
>>54368380
>how much better is <anything> than dual booting?
100% better. dual booting is shit. pick an OS and stick to it. Think about it, how often are you going to want to shut down all your running applications and restart into a different OS? Two sets of drivers, two sets of updates to maintain... wasted hard disk space on a second OS... it's pretty much the worst possible scenario.
If you're not a richfag, you will 100% regret spending money on a laptop. They have short lifecycles, proprietary hardware, shitty ergonomics.
>>54368380
The new Macbook Pro and Surface Book will probably be released this June, so I'd wait a bit if you want get one.
>>54368380
>A lot of people say a MacBook Pro is the best bet because it's unix-based, has bash and can be used out of the box.
the macbook isn't unix-based, just the OS on it
Windows has bash (and the rest of linux userspace) now, and even before that there was cygwin and VMs
IMO you will have a lot more difficulty using an "out of the box" mac for real development work, than the 15 minute investment of setting up a PC with either windows or linux or BSD (or some combination thereof)
> Also, I've noticed that most people working in CS have MacBooks.
only for meme-reasons, it's a hipster thing. don't let this sway you.
>>54368485
The question is surface book or mackbook pro?
Surface book will have decent hardware, probably better than the cheaper version of the macbook but the keyboard is guaranteed to be shit.
Any other opinions? Still torn on this.
>>54368960
Dude buy a fucking chromebook for school. Load Linux if necessary, but don't spend more than $200. You will regret spending money on a fucking laptop. They're complete shit.
>>54368380
Anyone doing serious CS work is doing it from a desktop.
Famous people like Linus and other well known programmers don't do much heavy work these days, so you should not base your decision off of their hardware choice.
The same can be said for anyone in an academic institution.
You get out in the working world and people use desktops. Laptops are used for meetings. It doesn't really matter what the hardware is in that scenario, but the Macbooks look nice so they get used sometimes. Thinkpads are also common.
>>54369029
Why do you think it requires a desktop to develop and compile code?
>>54368960
If you go in to class without a Unix computer your professor will look at you like you're a retard.
Having said that, my CS department runs Redhat in the labs but most of the professors use macbooks.
all of these losers are neckbeard NEETs. if you're at school you will be out of your dorm room like 90% of the time, so get a laptop that fits your lifestyle. half of the CS majors here use Macbooks and the other half use Thinkpads with Linux dualboot.
>>54368960
Do you want to have a better understanding of your OS and have potentially total control of it?
>Linux
Do you want something that works out of the box and requires next to no maintenance?
Windows or OSX
OSX is prettier and macs are better for media and shit, but tt's probably a preference but there is a growing number of people who are adamant that OSX is superior for dev's.
>>54369066
Because it does in practical use. You're going to be sitting in front of it for hours, and you're going to want to do non-programming tasks at times. And your hobbies are going to cross over with your work. The desktop PC is the hub of a programmer's life.
>>54368380
>starting CS undergrad major
You are already not going to make it.
>>54369100
I should add that the labs are Dell All-in-ones (think iMac) donated from Dell. Theres a cute lil plaque saying "thanks to Dell..."
>>54368459
>>54368485
>>54369100
>>54369105
>>54369104
>>54368471
Okay I think I am willing to pay a premium for not having to dual-boot Linux which seems like a big hassle. I'll probably wait for the new MBP then.
>>54369125
Agreed. Laptops are obviously shit from a price/performance perspective, but what people don't realize is the lack of ergonomics and long term comfort with a laptop. Personally I can barely stand using any productivity apps on a 12" or even 17" screen, let alone using a chintzy fucking laptop keyboard with fuck-huge metal wrist rest and worthless pointing device...
>>54369660
Also lets talk about neck position...
>>54368380
>>54368982
This 1000% OP. There is no reason to blow over 1 grand on a MacBook. Uni students only get them to fit in, I'm sure you know that.
Chromebook with a dual boot into Ubuntu and you're set. Spend extra $$$ on a desktop of required. Don't cuck yourself.
>>54369220
If you cant dual boot a simple distro like Ubuntu, then don't even attempt a career in CS
>>54368380
Get a netbook and install Ubuntu. Save yourself a thousand dollars
>>54370000
once again /g/ confuses Computer Science with IT administration.
>>54370035
Once again, technology illiterates who can't even follow a 5 step guide think they'll make it past one quarter in a university much less their CS program.
If you're looking for something to use *just* for school, then get whatever cheap laptop you want with good battery life, and just load Linux on it. If you're looking for something to use every day, at home and at school, then spend the money and buy a Macbook. But if you don't need it or can't justify it, then don't buy it.
Let's face it, if you could justify it, then you wouldn't be posting here.
>>54369220
Good choice my friend
>>54370000
>>54370048
Nobody wants to switch OS multiple times per day
Fuck off freetard
>games
Just get your shitty Windows 10 botnet already. Why did you even bother asking?
>>54368380
according to my java prof it doesnt matter
whatever your coding for class will be light
and when you start working the company will provide you with the gear you need
>>54368416
this. you'll get used to any laptop you buy OP. Don't believe the faggots that say otherwise.
>>54370062
>mactoddler thinks you need to switch os multiple times a day
Just drop out and stop wasting your parents money.
Sorry to hijack this thread, but is there a laptop with a good battery life (6-7 hours with moderate web browsing and productivity), lightweight (4-5 lb) and can play muh gaymes, or am I imagining something impossible for today's market?
>>54370088
>games
just use the library computers idiot -.-
>>54370080
According to my computer architecture professor it does matter. Anyone not using Windows 7, chrome, and visual studio running on an Intel CPU gets beheaded. I hate him.
>>54370088
>games
>>54370088
Yeah, it's called the macbook pro retina shit nugget.
im using arch linux with an xps 13 and do pretty good, something poeple say i look like a hax3r with my rice OS, plus you have awesome repositories and you can install a lot of stuff easy
sudo pacman -S java
yes yes and thats it you have java.
>>54370088
That really depends on what games. If you're playing older stuff (10 years or so,) and your biggest concern is battery life, then grab yourself a used Macbook Air, or something else in that vein. Light, not quite so powerful, and with a battery that seems to last forever.
You can get power, battery life, and light, but be prepared to sell your testicles to get it.
>>54370140
And yet some people (Ubuntu users) say that's too difficult. I guess flags are hard to grasp.
>games
>he thinks hes going to have time to play games
rofl
thinkpad+linux=best
then a winblows pc for muh gaymes
>>54368380
>I'm starting a CS undergrad major soon
Don't bother, unless you're going to a top rated school with an extremely rigorous program. MIT, Berkeley, Cal-Tech, maybe Stanford.
A CS degree from a typical school means almost nothing. You'd be FAR better off doing a math major, or a real engineering major (Mech-E or EE). If you can't hack that, then do a business major with a math minor. Your off-time programming chops will be vastly more valuable anyway.
>>54370171
this
>>54368380
>How much better is this compared to dual-booting Linux on a Windows laptop?
Way better. Linux sucks on the desktop. All the autists around here will claim it doesn't, but it does.
Yeah, Macs are faggy and whatever, but they're the best hardware and the OS is the most polished consumer-oriented *nix OS you'll find in the world.
>>54370187
wut? is this true amerifags? lmao
>>54370196
You would know what it means to be faggy since you love taking fresh hot ones down your throat all day.
>>54370171
Thus is what I did but eventually played games less and hated Windows more. Now I'm Linux on both ends with a ps4 for occasionally playing a modern game.
>>54370199
Yes. "Amerifags"? Okay, if it's not true in your country yet, then it's just because your tech scene is so far behind the times that they think a dumb CS degree means jack shit.
Think about it. They claim to take newbs who just saw programmer salaries and make them into software engineers with a solid grasp of CS fundamentals (i.e. babby math)? Yeah, no fucking way.
If I'm going over resumes, the EE majors go to the top, followed by Math majors (unless it's a research position, in which case it's reversed), then Mech-E, then linguistics, then business, then most everything else.
The only ones that trump that stack are, as I said, the top-rated programs where I know they were actually rigorous.
>>54370214
This right here is the level of rebuttal you'll get out of /g/ regarding Mac and OS X quality.
>>54370062
When you take CS courses you're going to need critical thinking skills, and booting into a different OS is a simple skill. OP will most likely need to use Windows software, alongside Unix software, especially if OP is taking intro CS undergrad courses.
This guy gets it >>54370082
who the fuck needs to switch OS more then 2 times a day?
OP, if you want to learn to use tools that will make your work easier in the near future, then learn how to juggle multiple OS. Hell, you might even be able to just run an ubuntu server in a VM, and gain even more valuable experience.
You can run a VM now to try out different Linux distros too.
Get a macbook or a chromebook you dumbshit. If you want to do programming as a career, youll be using it for years.
t. Professional programmer. Each of my jobs provided a macbook. You could use your own linux laptop but if you bring in a windows machine, theyll think youre memeing.
>>54370187
not true at all. a CS undergrad and an internship will get you gainful employment guaranteed.
>>54370239
Because you love shoving dicks up your butt.
>>54370251
>OP will most likely need to use Windows software,
Only if his CS program is shit.
>>54370251
>Critical thinking skills
>Booting into different OS
>>54370260
Yeah, until you start making more money and age a bit, at which point you'll find yourself laid off and, oddly enough, nobody is calling you back.
A business major + CS minor (or better yet, a math minor) will make you FAR more ready to provide real business value to people and get you started on a *career* instead of a series of jobs.
But hey, don't listen to me, I'm just older than you and have done quite a lot of resume reviewing and interviewing. By all means, believe whatever you want to based on your little view of the world.
"Hurr, I can get a job out of college, so it's a great plan!" Glad to see that you have, like, a four year plan in life.
>>54370199
Yes, I knew I had to go math major when I had to teach grad students how to teach undergrads, which I was at the time, how to teach the fucking Scratch course. That in itself was a fucking joke. CS in the US is so dumbed down bow because of all the "anyone can code" shit. Top schools are badass though, and even Berkley has some sick CS research programs.
>>54370251
>Switching OS 2 times per day
>Acceptable
Lol?
>>54370260
while he's not absolute, he's 'right' in the sense of most likely outcome.
You need either
>top tier CS school
>Engineering Degree
>have connections and job lined up through friend/family
CS degrees from non reputable schools are just Cash Grabs for this 'lost' generation of young men.
Where they don't really have any interests or passions except video games and the internet.
So they finish High School without applying themselves, and go to Post Secondary cause 'they're supposed to'.
And apply to CS because 'computers do everything' and 'they'll be lots of jobs!' and they're 'good with computers.'
You need to man up and math up and get an engineering degree. At least.
>>54370349
This is textbook projection
>>54370332
2 times is the bare minimum if your shit professor wants you to do visualbasic and .Net bullshit. Its not like you should be imprisoned in Windows for the rest of the day.
>be in linux getting real shit done and having a great time before having to do windows bullshit
>time for fucking windows work, better switch
>free from bullshit, switch back to linux
>>54370332
VMs
>>54370364
This is textbook real life, right now. Vote Trump
>>54369105
OSX is a *nix
Obviously it's nicer than Windows, even though it is the *nix faggots use
>>54368459
this is your only option
>>54369817
Its also work safe. Not a place for your super funny adult comic strips!!
>>54370292
You, salty faggot, sound very hard to deal with on a daily basis.
>>54369105
It is superior. Windows 'devving' is the slowest shit. I use my works mac but i cant wait to buy my own
Macbooks aren't worth it.
OS is buggy and ugly, not polished and amazing
Build quality is shit
Battery life is inferior to manly laptops with removable and externally visible battery packs
The advantages are as follows
thin (if you have a microgram of testosterone in your blood this doesn't affect you)
pretty screen (see above, also color accuracy is sub-par)
MalwarePad Carbon X1
>>54370292
How is that a 4 year plan alone? Thats more +4 years more experience. It should be even easier to find a job, just cause it didn't work out for you, your bitter.
>>54370140
As an Arch user, this makes me warm inside
A macbook provides you with all that you need for college in a CS program:
Unix development environment.
matlab
MS-Office (god forbid any non CS class requires it)
It also has great presentation software with keynote.
Also, why worry about cost? That shit is going to last you the whole 4 years.
>>54370187
You're a fucking moron.
OP here, thanks for the replies. I'm going into Berkeley EECS with only a year of coding experience so my ass will be stretched wide open. I'm just gonna go with a MBP though.
>>54370438
The other advantage is that it has the better environment for programming, even if not for games
>>54370489
im from the bay too, what city are u from? San Jose here
>>54370499
aye SJ too
>>54370441
Isnt this discontinued?
>>54370502
i go to SJSU though, 3rd year
>>54370062
>Nobody wants to switch OS multiple times per day
First off what the fuck why would this even be a requirement, secondly if you don't have a ssd to boot off in 2016 you should probably just kill yourself at this point.
Every CS class I have had so far was all workstation in class stuff, and only like 10% of the student body used macs, most of them had little to no understanding of anything.
One of them asked why his BCRL putty session didn't auto-complete directory locations "like safari does with websites"
>>54370471
>UNIX development environment
overrated and considered harmful. while you're learning how to edit text with a gorillion different tools (let's use awk, no, sed, no, grep, no, head, no, tail, no, tr, no, cut....) in order to make sense of the overly verbose output of *nix-specific dev tools (all of which had to be learned individually, and all of which have alternatives that you don't know but someone else does) and learning an arcane text editor with zero concrete long term benefits like vim or emacs because you can, people using a modern environment are getting much more done, getting it done faster, and working together because they all have the same IDE, which is normally standard for their platform (VS/xcode), instead of piecemeal environments
>WELL I USE AG AND HG AND VIM AND MAKE AND...
>WELL I USE ACK AND GIT AND EMACS AND CMAKE AND...
>>54370448
rofl why?
>>54370489
Hi OP im actually the guy who's been saying to dual boot; don't dual boot! After seeing the replies to my posts I've realized you'll be better off with a MBP and using an Ubuntu server VM, and if absolutely necessary you can install Windows 10 on a VM
>>54370441
>>54370446
>>54370448
>>54370489
>>54370491
>>54370502
>>54370512
>>54370513
>>54370517
FACT 1:EVERYONE who uses a macbook loves to suck dick and rim men for fun.
FACT 2:EVERYONE who uses a macbook has the smallest knowledge of technology on /g/.
FACT 3:EVERYONE who uses a macbook should have their organs dissected while alive and screaming in pain.
>>54370349
>engineering
>math
they do calculus, some probability, some stats, babby linear algebra, some diffy eqs and numerical methods
that's barely any math
>>54370571
I have no idea how crazy autistic you have to be to post stuff like this.
>>54370571
>being mad that you fell for the windows meme
>>54368380
comp eng grad here. I bought a MacBook for school and it was perfect. I was worried about software compatibility but it runs everything I needed fine. install openbox and set up a windows and Ubuntu VM if you need them. dual booting is a nightmare on any system.
that said, my desktop PC was still my primary computer for school work.
>>54370590
>>54370602
>>54370604
FACT 4:EVERYONE, in no uncertain terms, who uses a Mac deserves a death from being skinned alive with a hot knife while having their body stabbed. Its the only death deserving for vermin who decide to use macbook.
>>54370650
Nice meme
>>54370650
Do we want to know about whoever didn't love you enough when you were a kid, or is this going to be some sob story about how your parents didn't buy you enough toys and how that traumatized you?
>>54370629
Glad to hear. I can't really have a desktop setup because I'm in a dorm my first year but I hope to get a good PC build next year.
>>54370660
>>54370695
FACT 5:EVERYONE who uses a macbook LOVES to guzzle down fresh hot steaming corn kernal shit down their throats. It's a natural reaction to have from loving shit so much.
>>54370730
So mad
>>54370730
>basement dwelling NEET who draws identity only from his choices in computing environment and feels threatened.
ie. You're a small man trying to be a big man.
>>54368380
Honestly, the specs don't really matter unless you're using the laptop for gaming, or maybe like video editing or 3d rendering or something. I'm currently in a CSE undergrad and I've been using my 4 year old macbook air for all my schoolwork, and that's been more than adequate.
So if you want to be able to play games, either get a desktop and have a chromebook for schoolwork, or get a higher end laptop, and dual boot linux if you need to.
>>54370578
then why aren't you a Petroleum Engineer making 120k+/yearly with benefits?
>>54370917
Because I'm a software engineer making over 150k w/ benefits.
>>54369220
Get the fuck off this board
>>54368380
>games in spare time
I look forward to your attrition.
It all depends on your school's CS program.
If they rely on a unix environment, most likely you'll have a shell account on the school's systems. If this is the case, anything works, but a macbook or a laptop running linux is better so you can do stuff locally.
Some CS programs use windows software (enterprise architect, visual studio). Do whatever you can to fit in and *don't* be different just because you think you're better - it will only cause grief.
The others saying "anyone doing real CS work uses a desktop" are full of shit. At home I do, but my work machine is a maxed out retina macbook pro. If a workload is too much for it, I spin up AWS instances with enough power, push stuff to that, then spin them down. This is extremely rare and you won't need to do that for university stuff.
>>54370917
who the hell wants to move to texas and work out in an oil field?
>>54371033
>>54371109
> software engineers with no chance of becoming the company CEO or major promotions past the IT department
Is there an actual CS class that requires Visual Studio? Can I get a link to a syllabus if you've had one?
>>54371126
>becoming the company CEO
Nobody here wants this
>>54370629
>dual booting is a nightmare on any system.
It's actually pretty easy on desktops. Took me like 20 minutes to install Mint on my machine that already had Windows 10.
>>54370917
Because I did real math and got 300k starting
>>54369817
you're not welcome here either retard
>70k with just an A+ and some real-world experience
this is nothing compared to what so mentors and colleagues make, but god damn it's all about who you know. I want to finish my AS in computer networking but I really don't care anymore.
but best of luck to you CS majors. You'll probably make three times that much once you graduate, but it's nice living for now.
>>54370171
That's the way to go. But I dual boot Linux / Windows on my Desktop where I use Linux for work and Windows for muh games.
X220 with Linux for portable work
My desktop PC for working at home and gayming.
>>54371146
> I don't want fulfilling, challenging work which rewards me with mountains of cash
>>54371694
I'd rather earn slightly less for much less work, kiddo.
>>54370088
Dell XPS 15.
>>54370088
>play muh gaymes
Get literally any laptop with Thunderbolt 3 and can fit a quad core i7 (this means at least a i7-6***MQ).
Then stick in a Razer Core and you can plug in a GTX 980Ti into your laptop or whatever the fuck you feel like.
>>54371759
we all know you got no life might as well be filthy rich
>macfaggots on MY /g/
>>54368516
programs need to be specifically compiled for cygwin, and afaik Linux on Windows or whatever it's called doesn't implement all the syscalls in Linux yet
>>54368380
Get a mac and then drop out.
