Best for Computer Science?

[jorpoveda]

Hello I am a computer science student and I have been wondering what would be best for me. To get a PC and have WIN7 with a Ubuntu VM or buy a Mac and use OS X. I dont know which one is best for computer science.

I had this discussion with a friend and he told me that many engineers use Macbooks nowadays and that it is starting to be a trend to use one. He used as reference several Techcrunch Disrupts and says he has seen tons of Macbooks and that Mark Zuckerberg uses also a Macbook. Those are not valid arguments for me.

I am looking forward to goo arguments on a OS to choose for my personal computers when working on programming, CAD, math and all other the courses I have to take.

Thank you.

 

[voyagerfan99]

Get a Mac and dual-boot OSX and WIN7.

 

[jorpoveda]

I was told to stay with WIN7 as it is still the major OS used worldwide, and learn Linux for servers as it is used in 90% of them. Still I would like more opinions.

 

[voyagerfan99]

You can still also install linux on a mac. It's not strictly a PC thing.

 

[NyxCharon]

If you need to do CAD work, windows for sure. Programming is easily done in any OS, but you can be most effective (imo) in linux. So dual boot windows and linux.

 

[jorpoveda]

If you need to do CAD work, windows for sure. Programming is easily done in any OS, but you can be most effective (imo) in linux. So dual boot windows and linux.

Yes, I think I am going to go with this one, but not with a dual boot, but with a Virtual Machine with Ubuntu, unless it causes more problems than what it solves.

 

[Troncoso]

Get a Mac and dual-boot OSX and WIN7.

I can't imagine why you would suggest that for CS.

To the OP, are you doing Computer Science or Computer Engineering? Those are 2 different things.

I'd get a Windows Machine and dual boot Linux. It really is the easiest OS to program in. If you are taking courses in CS, a lot of schools even have you program in Linux anyway.

 

[NyxCharon]

I can't imagine why you would suggest that for CS.

To the OP, are you doing Computer Science or Computer Engineering? Those are 2 different things.

I'd get a Windows Machine and dual boot Linux. It really is the easiest OS to program in. If you are taking courses in CS, a lot of schools even have you program in Linux anyway.

Agreed. At my school, ALL of the CS/CpE labs run linux. And linux only.

 

[voyagerfan99]

I can't imagine why you would suggest that for CS.

Okay, triple boot OSX, Win7, and Linux. Sound better?

 

[jorpoveda]

I can't imagine why you would suggest that for CS.

To the OP, are you doing Computer Science or Computer Engineering? Those are 2 different things.

I'd get a Windows Machine and dual boot Linux. It really is the easiest OS to program in. If you are taking courses in CS, a lot of schools even have you program in Linux anyway.

Yes, I am studying Computer Science, I do not know about what OS uses my school because I just started, but I do know that they have an arragenment with Microsoft, Oraclen, Sun Microsystems and IBM for internships.

 

[DMGrier]

Okay, triple boot OSX, Win7, and Linux. Sound better?

2 of the 3 sound good and it does not involve a product with a chewed up apple on it.

You are right about 90% of pc's running windows, I believe the number is some where around a billion users. I would do a windows PC and virtual machine of Ubuntu or Linux mint.

 

[voyagerfan99]

See, my next laptop will be a Mac for the build quality, but I'll most definitely dual-boot OSX and 7.

 

[kobaj]

I think it depends on what features you want.

Long battery life? Mac and dual boot Windows. (Note: don't bother triple booting with linux, Mac is based on unix...)
Power/good price? Windows laptop and dual boot Ubuntu (or hackintosh).

My point is buy what /hardware/ you want, and then just add whatever Operating System your courses require as you go.

However I do have to lean towards a Windows based machine, and instead of dual booting or even virtual machines use Cygwin for any linux programming you have to do.

Source: I'm a CS student.

 

[NyxCharon]

I think it depends on what features you want.

Long battery life? Mac and dual boot Windows. (Note: don't bother triple booting with linux, Mac is based on unix...)
Power/good price? Windows laptop and dual boot Ubuntu (or hackintosh).

.

I absolutly hate that statement. Unix is not linux. To the point, mac is based on BSD. BSD=/= linux. I said use linux because of it's productivity. Things like tiling window managers and a heavy emphasis on terminal work etc, things mac does not adovate. So please, don't use that as a argument.

 

[Troncoso]

Woo! Mac wars! Haha. I agree with voyager fan on build quality as far as mac is concerned, though, I believe it's possible to find PC that are well made.

My school's computers don't actually run linux. We use puTTy, which allows us to log onto the school's server as well as access a virtual terminal.

 

[voyagerfan99]

Woo! Mac wars! Haha. I agree with voyager fan on build quality as far as mac is concerned, though, I believe it's possible to find PC that are well made.

Yeah either a Mac, Dell Latitude, or ASUS.

Who would have guessed I'd ever want a Mac?

 

[DMGrier]

I absolutly hate that statement. Unix is not linux. To the point, mac is based on BSD. BSD=/= linux. I said use linux because of it's productivity. Things like tiling window managers and a heavy emphasis on terminal work etc, things mac does not adovate. So please, don't use that as a argument.

Ummm last time I checked and Apple did advertise this that there system is a Unix system. Further more if you look up the difference of BSD and Linux is that Linux takes Unix code and makes a different code but similar to the Unix code. BSD on the other or I should say FreeBSD looks at the Unix code and copy it as much as they possible can without getting in trouble therefore making it very Unix.

 

[Kesava]

See, my next laptop will be a Mac for the build quality, but I'll most definitely dual-boot OSX and 7.

That would make a lot of sense, except that I can go out and buy 2 laptops (same specs if not better than the mac) and those 2 laptops, if used in succession, are going to outlast the mac.

Obviously it would make more sense to buy the second laptop after the first one had stopped working, but sense isn't something that really comes into play when you spend twice as much money on something just because it looks pretty. (excluding girls of course). I seriously just checked and I could technically do this, I'm not just ranting.

 

[NyxCharon]

Ummm last time I checked and Apple did advertise this that there system is a Unix system. Further more if you look up the difference of BSD and Linux is that Linux takes Unix code and makes a different code but similar to the Unix code. BSD on the other or I should say FreeBSD looks at the Unix code and copy it as much as they possible can without getting in trouble therefore making it very Unix.

The kernel (Darwin) is based on BSD and mac code. The rest of the system is layers that apple themselves wrote. So make of that what you want.

 

[Kesava]

Ummm last time I checked and Apple did advertise this that there system is a Unix system.

Yeah I have a copy of that advertisement actually: