Which PC for CS student?

Hi guys, I am planning to buy a new laptop mainly for university, I will be taking Computer Science so I might need some mid-high performance laptop for heavy lifting, I am thinking of going for a Mac Pro, though I am having a bit of a doubt whether I can justify the price for a roughly mid ranged spec laptop when I could maybe get a slightly more powerful hardware on another platform for the same or even less price.

I do like the build quality and UI of Macs, and I noticed how easy it is to install and remove software applications on them (a simple drag and drop). but they are just too damn expensive. I may however be able to go for the 13-inch i5 but I'm probably going to be broke after (maybe it's ok as long as it's worth it). I have never owned a Mac Computer before though I have fiddled on my sister's mac pro for number of times and it is very Linux like environment which is very nice.

I have a very mixed feelings about this, It will be my computer for the next three or four years on university, so I want to know your thoughts on this this.


Also if you own a Mac Pro, can you dual/multi-boot with other Operating Systems primarily with Linux and Windows without using any VMs?

Thanks

Hi guys, I am planning to buy a new laptop mainly for university, I will be taking Computer Science so I might need some mid-high performance laptop for heavy lifting, I am thinking of going for a Mac Pro, though I am having a bit of a doubt whether I can justify the price for a roughly mid ranged spec laptop when I could maybe get a slightly more powerful hardware on another platform for the same or even less price.

I do like the build quality and UI of Macs, and I noticed how easy it is to install and remove software applications on them (a simple drag and drop). but they are just too damn expensive. I may however be able to go for the 13-inch i5 but I'm probably going to be broke after (maybe it's ok as long as it's worth it). I have never owned a Mac Computer before though I have fiddled on my sister's mac pro for number of times and it is very Linux like environment which is very nice.

I have a very mixed feelings about this, It will be my computer for the next three or four years on university, so I want to know your thoughts on this this.


Also if you own a Mac Pro, can you dual/multi-boot with other Operating Systems primarily with Linux and Windows without using any VMs?

Thanks

Hi guys, I am planning to buy a new laptop mainly for university,...

You're thinking of getting a Macbook Pro and you're going to be doing a computer science degree? You're going to get so badly abused for that.

Seriously, it doesn't sound like you've got much money sloshing around, so going high end is a silly idea. Just get a decent middle of the road laptop with good build quality rather than amazing performance and then, if you like Linux-like environments, just install Linux on it.

I have a Macbook pro. However for the most of my life I've used a Windows PC, but I don't think I can go back to Windows. As you said OS X has a very beautiful and user friendly UI. And Macbooks are very good quality. Unfortunately, I was a bit stingy and didn't get the one with SSD, so now after two years, I feel like I have to format it every 6 months. Though that might be just me as apps and other files things tend to accumulate with me as I am unorganized.

Windows or Mac, just remember to only buy one with an SSD.

Agree with you on everything. Though what do you think about getting a laptop with SSD? I think it's a must !

I wouldn't call Yosemite "beautiful". There's still some very questionable UX issues with it, though the frosted glass effects are nice enough. It's not user friendly though, especially if you're a Windows power user. I've felt like a toothless hillbilly trying to get to grips with OS X after being a Windows user for the past 18 years. I find OS X and the whole Mac experience to be nowhere near as flawless and amazing as Macolytes make it out to be. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that it makes me downright miserable using it.

And you want to be careful... the Church of Jobs will hang you for letting on that your Mac experience hasn't been 110% perfect...

It's not user friendly Whatttttt? compared to windows 8 and 10? You are just a hater man, in what way is Mac OS X UI not beautiful, even if it isnt, its way better than Windows... I think you're talking about functionality of the OS. As a computer science student I will not use windows... Also if you use a mac you get the bonus of getting to learn Objective C or swift. You can also learn the unix command lines in an OS that actually works compared to linux which will screw up if you type the wrong command.

I wouldn't call Yosemite "beautiful". There's still some very questionable UX issues with it, though the frosted glass effects are nice enough. It's not user friendly though, especially if you're a Windows power user. I've felt like a toothless hillbilly trying to get to grips with OS X after being a Windows user for the past 18 years. I find OS X and the whole Mac experience to be nowhere near as flawless and amazing as Macolytes make it out to be. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that it makes me downright miserable using it.

And you want to be careful... the Church of Jobs will hang you for letting on that your Mac experience hasn't been 110% perfect...

That's your choice, but a Mac user in a room of CS geeks... yeah, you're going to be the butt of a lot of jokes because you bought a designer handbag, rather than a practical tool..

No, I'm not just a hater. I'm a daily user of OS X. I'm also a Windows 7 user - I can't stand Windows 8 and haven't played with 10 yet. My point is, OS X isn't "beautiful". It's nice, but it doesn't deserve such extravagant praise as being described as "beautiful". Don't presume that you think you know what I mean more than I do.

That's your choice, but a Mac user in a room of CS geeks... yeah, you're going to be the butt of a lot of jokes because you bought a designer handbag, rather than a practical tool.

I'm not a programmer, so I have no interest in languages supported. All I need is Perl and Python to do my work.

Regarding a "safer environment", Bash is Bash is Bash. You're executing the same commands regardless of the base OS, so I don't buy that.

Definitely NOT perfect, but also definitely better than windows. The thing is after you get used to it, you get to see how faster (more convenient) it is. But then again that's just me.
In the end, the difference is not as big as people make it out to be, and I wouldn't mind it if for some reason I was forced to use a PC. Especially those beautiful Toshiba (Alienware) laptops, you KNOW they're good quality.

Edit: I thought Alienware were a Toshiba line, so yeah I meant Alienware not Toshiba.

Definitely NOT perfect, but also definitely better than windows. The thing is after you get used to it, you get to see how faster (more convenient) it is. But then again that's just me. In the end, the difference is not as big as people make it out to be, and I wouldn't mind it if for some reason I was forced to use a PC. Especially those beautiful Toshiba (Alienware) laptops, you KNOW they're good quality.Edit: I thought Alienware were a Toshiba line, so yeah I meant Alienware not Toshiba.

To be fair thats only because the OS of Mac's have been built and optimised around certain specs hence why they are smooth and why its so difficult to install it on anything else.

Alienware are good quality? Their a joke and a rip off.

They aren't better than Windows.
Windows isn't slow, that's just a myth.



Alienware are good for quality, they're just too expensive for what you get.