College-bound: Which Laptop for Computer Science Degree

[zman]

So my son is headed to Cal-Poly Pomona as a Freshman and he will be majoring in Computer Science. I want to buy him a laptop to replace his older MacBook Air (2010 model I believe).

What should I be looking for? Anything special to run any ComSci-related applications?

[sd_shooter]

A windoze-based laptop would suffice. ALL the computer science type apps I used in college ran on Windows.

Sure, get him a mac if you wallet can stand it and if he must fit in when "studying" at Starbucks There are ways to get by.

[ocabj]

Personally, I'd go with a Mac. Seriously.

I got through my 4 years of Computer Science with a Pentium 133 running Redhat (4 and 5), but if I were taking CS again, I would totally want a MacBook Pro/Air.

The development environment of OS X is going to be good for everything. VirtualBox is free if you need to run actual Linux and write Linux system space code (e.g. Operating Systems course). Vagrant+VBox is going to be a Godsend as far as making new development environments on the fly (as well as destroying them and rebuilding them clean).

Granted, he should probably see what the college/dept recommends for him since they might require specific software to be used.

We used Visual Studio (UCR) for our first quarter for introductory programming, then after that it was all GNU for the development environment. I was actually using cygwin on my laptop with windows for a couple quarters. Funny thing is that most people would just shell over to the primary department server and X11 export sessions (emacs, etc) and just work on the server directly.

[XDRoX]

I'm done with PC's.
So I'd get either the 15" MacBook Pro for $2000 or the 13" for $1500.

For me it has very little to do with "fitting in," and everything to do with buying something that is reliable and a pleasure to use.

Assuming of course his required software will work on it...

[killacam]

me and my buddy go to CSUN and here they require Mac as well as PC. He had to get a Ipad for a class and now he just bought a macbook. ( i am not a Comp sci major)


I would get a well built... Built not bough ... Pc at home, get a Macbook laptop and a Ipad and you will be set...but as a freshmen he has another 2 years before he starts any major core classes.

[Gutz]

Get a Dell with Ubuntu. You can install VMware Player and run Windows for all the Office programs he'll surely need. OR..

As much as I hate Macs, get a Mac with Parallels (vmware player for Windows).

[ocabj]

Get a Dell with Ubuntu. You can install VMware Player and run Windows for all the Office programs he'll surely need. OR..

As much as I hate Macs, get a Mac with Parallels (vmware player for Windows).

He's a Comp Sci major. He won't need Office short of Word, and even then, he'll probably want to look like a real CS major and use LaTeX. :P

And never recommend Parallels. Use VirtualBox and add Vagrant.

[NYT]

CS is pretty much open for your first couple years. i would get him something cheap and expendable like a chromebook. when he figures out what his actual focus will be, let him decide which laptop to go with.

more than likely he will want a macbook because they are popular with the kids in his class. its better to start saving you money now in preparation for buying it later. $2k+ and then you MUST get apple care.

[lorax3]

He is not going to be doing much if any CS work in his first two years anyway. Ask him what he prefers.

I run Windows on my Mac in a virtual machine and see no reason to buy a Windows PC for personal use, but people have different opinions.

Generally folks in CS degrees are pretty tech savvy so they can make due with either.

If he already likes Macs I would suggest a Mac.

[Tempus]

Look at the course catalog. If he's going to be doing mobile app development then Mac wins. You can do android on either but you need xcode to sign iphone apps.

If he's going to be doing server work then I'd sick on a windows based machine.

General CS work and no real idea - its a toss up. Get whatever he likes.

[AAShooter]

Does the school recommend a specific computer?

[bigbearbear]

Congratulations with you son going to college, and not only that, he's studying computer science and not one of those "liberal arts" or Ethiopian basket weaving degrees.

My recommendation: You son should be old enough to select his own equipment, time to let go and stop treating him like a kid.

[ultrahax]

You didn't mention budget

If I were to do my comp sci degree again, I'd love to do it with my Thinkpad X230, currently dual-booting Ubuntu and Windows 7, with some minor upgrades including a Samsung 870 SSD and some extra RAM.

[billofrights]

Personally, I'd go with a Mac. Seriously.

I got through my 4 years of Computer Science with a Pentium 133 running Redhat (4 and 5), but if I were taking CS again, I would totally want a MacBook Pro/Air.

The development environment of OS X is going to be good for everything. VirtualBox is free if you need to run actual Linux and write Linux system space code (e.g. Operating Systems course). Vagrant+VBox is going to be a Godsend as far as making new development environments on the fly (as well as destroying them and rebuilding them clean).

Granted, he should probably see what the college/dept recommends for him since they might require specific software to be used.

We used Visual Studio (UCR) for our first quarter for introductory programming, then after that it was all GNU for the development environment. I was actually using cygwin on my laptop with windows for a couple quarters. Funny thing is that most people would just shell over to the primary department server and X11 export sessions (emacs, etc) and just work on the server directly.

This x1000.

[NytWolf]

PC or Mac would work. However, a PC-based computer would be better as most programming courses would likely be taught using a PC-based compiler. Intel vs AMD would be a better question to ask. Back in my schooling days, the only caveat for programming courses was to not compile using a Gateway computer as the instruction set on the Gateway math-coprocessor lacked one instruction so compiling wouldn't work properly. (shows my age)

Running emulation on a Mac would work until he gets into something low level like ASSEMBLY.

Linux is cool to have, but unlikely needed on a student's PC. He can always telnet into the school server for that type of limited work.