<p>Hi guys!
I'm getting into college in a month, and I was wondering which laptop is the best for my major?
I prefer a 13 inch with a good battery life and mid-low weight, nevertheless I'm open to take any suggestions you have!
Thanks a heap.</p>
<p>Whatever you get, be sure it runs BSD Unix.</p>
<p>Lenovo and asus, apple, dell, hp are good</p>
<p>I admittedly don’t know much about computer science and i’m in high school, but I work at bestbuy. I assume that you would want something that runs really well and brand doesn’t matter as much as long as you get the right specs. I don’t know about Mac but if pc look for something with an i7 processor. It goes i3, i5, then i7 with i7 being the best. Personally I like asus but anything would work with the right insides. Someone that knows computer science probably knows better than me but I home that helps a little</p>
<p>Find out if you’re going to be using VMware to run virtual machines. If so, an i5 or i7, 8gb memory, and SSD, probably Lenovo in my experience (my daughter just dropped her T420 on carpeted floor, battery came out, no damage. I was blown away… </p>
<p>Writing code on 13" is asking for trouble. 14" would be minimum in my view. As far as brand see what everyone else is using, and what software they use. If it’s the usual tried and true stuff (Eclipse, Java, VS2010) then pretty much anything will do, if it’s some off the wall software stick with what they know works.</p>
<p>Don’t insist on spending too much though except for gaming. Any mid-range computer nowadays can run virtual machines so you can run windows and unix at the same time. Personally I wouldn’t settle for anything less than a Intel Core i5, and you can get such a decent laptop for $600-$700.</p>
<p>I don’t think you need a powerfull laptop. All the works will be done on the computers / servers at school / department. You just need a laptop to login remotely.</p>
<p>Find out what deals your school offers. Buy one of those. That will really help with problems if you need help from their IT dept. If you really want a small screen (for portability), buy an external monitor and keyboard for when you are in your dorm.</p>
<p>Do not buy a mac !!! Ill tell you why. I am a computer science major and I work with over 9 different computer science languages. First of all you must realize that specs dont really matter in your case. You are not looking for cpu power simply because you are running a basic program. One thing I do recommend is having a minimum of 4gb ram simply because all the visual basic compilers are take so much ram, and as a computer programmer you will face debugging processes that will require a good amount of ram. Another thing that you should know, is that if youre seriously a computer science major, youre not gonna be using you computer less than 5 hours a day, so dont buy something that breaks quickly, simply because sometimes youll get ****ed ans smack the computer, or youll stop being careful with it, and lets not forget almost all your school work will be on your laptop. You want something reliable, thus I would say go with either lenovo or asus. Lastly the reason i started with dont buy a mac, is simply OSX is not a good operating system to use for programming unless you are programming for iProducts. What I did was buy a nice lenovo t420 a year ago, this thing is running windows 7, Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat, and OSX. Its an amazing machine, which I occasionally drop, and mistreat, but it never gives up. And if something happens to if lenovo will cover it. You can literally smash the whole computer then ask them to replace it they will. Bottom line I say buy lenovo thinkpad series.</p>
<p>Mac Air is light, has great battery life, is fast (no HD to seek), rugged (no HD to crash, solid aluminum), runs MacOS X and Windows legally with no hacking or warranty void. Do get 4GB RAM and as much SSD as you can afford.</p>
<p>Send short emails to profs asking what they use.</p>
<p>Well the problem with the air is that its too weak to run windows and too expensive for what youre getting from it. and trust me the “solid aluminum” could be bent with the touch of a finger.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in an Air, go to your nearest Apple store and check out the “flimsy” aluminum. :)</p>
<p>Everyone I know that has a macbook has a dent somewhere on it. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Aluminum is guaranteed to dent even at the slightest hit.</p>
<p>That explains why Apple, Samsung, Acer, Asus, Vizio and HP aluminum laptops don’t sell. ;)</p>
<p>Sales numbers aren’t going to fix product defects</p>
<p>There’s hope for non-aluminum:
</p>
<p>For how much apple’s laptops cost, you’d think they’d be made out of carbon fiber.</p>