Best for Computer Science?

NyxCharon said:

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.

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CAD has ran native on Macs for a while now.

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.

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OS X is based off of NeXT not BSD, but the kernel is a mach kernel (not a monolithic kernel) which is based on BSD's kernel. Unix is not Linux you are right, Linux is sort of Unix's hip younger brother that is a bit more modernized. Linux's approach is also modular, where Unix itself is a bit more monolithic. However, many things about Unix, OS X and Linux are universal. They are all POSIX compliant. They can all run the same shells, bash, sh, ksh, tsch, csh, etc.

I was a Sys admin for a while at my old job (well for 5 years) and I managed 14,000 Macs, 1,000 iOS devices, and 40 OS X Servers. I do a lot of terminal work, and I deploy scripts written in Python, shell/bash, Apple Script all the time. Not to mention things like SSH, SFTP, and so forth.


Also, why dual or triple boot? Guys, virtual machines man, that is where it's at. Plus the Macbook Pro comes out of the box with 8gigs of RAM in it.

Kesava said:

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.

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2 laptops with the same exact specs as a Mac for the same price as one Mac? Come on dude, at least make claims you can back up. You cannot really get a PC cheaper, spec to spec comparison than a Mac. Maybe a $100 or so difference.

Remember spec for spec means the exact same parts. Macbook Pros have IPS screens in them. Also, you can buy RAM third party just like you can with a PC so it is not like that is even an issue.

DMGrier said:

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.

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I think thi is most likely what I am going to do.

kobaj said:

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.

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It is good to have a reference from someone who studies the same as me.

NyxCharon said:

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.

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Completely agree, OS X is based on a FreeBSD/OpenSTEP kernel and on top an OS called Darwin. So yes, OS X is not like Linux at all.

Also I have to say that I love Apple products but they are really exprensive. I am going to buy a Series 3 Samsung laptop. It is 12" and have an i5 processor 4 GB RAM. I like small laptops smaller than 13" and this is just what I like also a very good price $700.

NyxCharon said:

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.

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You have a point. Unix is not Linux.

But as a CS major, all that matters is which (standard static) libraries the system has. By that I mean I can compile the program on Mac and then compile it on Linux, and not have to change any code. Can't do that between Windows and Linux.

EDIT: for languages like C++

kobaj said:

You have a point. Unix is not Linux.

But as a CS major, all that matters is which (standard static) libraries the system has. By that I mean I can compile the program on Mac and then compile it on Linux, and not have to change any code. Can't do that between Windows and Linux.

EDIT: for languages like C++

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The changes (if any) are usually very minor. Like for Java, the only thing that comes to mind is the newline character. A simple system check solves that problem.

Troncoso said:

The changes (if any) are usually very minor. Like for Java, the only thing that comes to mind is the newline character. A simple system check solves that problem.

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Except I said languages like C++, not Java. The former is designed for single platforms, the latter all/multi platform. The best example I can come up with is Pipe. It literally doesn't exist in Windows (namedpipe comes close, but its still not any of the same architecture or methods). That results in a lot more than a single system check/change in code.

But I feel you missed my point, and if I continue my example above we can come full circle. Mac and Linux both have Pipe and it works exactly the same and doesn't require any changes in code. For a CS major, that's all he cares about.

Tlarkin really explained what I'm talking about best with this part.

tlarkin said:

However, many things about Unix, OS X and Linux are universal. They are all POSIX compliant. They can all run the same shells, bash, sh, ksh, tsch, csh, etc.

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I compare Mac to Linux, because they both have a lot of similar function when it comes to code/terminal/what he will learn in school, and thus why it is suggested to just use one and not bother with both.

kobaj said:

Except I said languages like C++, not Java. The former is designed for single platforms, the latter all/multi platform. The best example I can come up with is Pipe. It literally doesn't exist in Windows (namedpipe comes close, but its still not any of the same architecture or methods). That results in a lot more than a single system check/change in code.

But I feel you missed my point, and if I continue my example above we can come full circle. Mac and Linux both have Pipe and it works exactly the same and doesn't require any changes in code. For a CS major, that's all he cares about.

Tlarkin really explained what I'm talking about best with this part.



I compare Mac to Linux, because they both have a lot of similar function when it comes to code/terminal/what he will learn in school, and thus why it is suggested to just use one and not bother with both.

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You make perfect sense. Though... chances are he will end up developing software for Windows.

Troncoso said:

You make perfect sense. Though... chances are he will end up developing software for Windows.

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I think it depends on the software he wants to develope, chances are he would end up making software for MS but he could develop some new admin tools for Unix and Linux based system and make some decent money.

Troncoso said:

You make perfect sense. Though... chances are he will end up developing software for Windows.

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Yep .

tlarkin said:

2 laptops with the same exact specs as a Mac for the same price as one Mac? Come on dude, at least make claims you can back up. You cannot really get a PC cheaper, spec to spec comparison than a Mac. Maybe a $100 or so difference.

Remember spec for spec means the exact same parts. Macbook Pros have IPS screens in them. Also, you can buy RAM third party just like you can with a PC so it is not like that is even an issue.

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This is if users care about the fact they have IPS screens which 90% of users do not. Actually there was a chart posted on here from engadget which showed that Asus, Toshiba and Sony in a three year span have less computers sent back for repairs then apple and I believe they all make laptops that are just about the same build quality for about 2-300 less then Apple can.

This is not to open a war cause I think OSX Lion is okay even with the hit and miss reviews unlike the OSX's before it. Just don't feel the computers are as well built as said before and you can keep your IPS and I will keep my usb 3.0, bluray and hdmi (not needing adaptor), not to mention for future laptop where I have choices in cpu and gpu areas where as with Apple they decide what you will use.

I am very flexible about this, I dont discard any OS, I think that all OS have an specific utility, and some a wider range of uses. Even if I decide to work with WIN7 an a VM with Ubuntu then in some point maybe I'll have to work with a Mac and OS X to develop iDevices apps. Or vice verse.

Still I like to read all your points as it makes my opinion about OSs richer. Thank you all.