<p>Yo, I'm an incoming freshman EECS major and I'm looking to buy a new laptop. I need some help because I'm confused which laptop to get. Preferably one that will last me long and be really compatible with a lot of the EECS requirements.</p>
<p>I had also wanted to get a Mac but I'm not sure if Macs will work for EECS. Any input?</p>
<p>Initially, i had narrowed it down to a Lenovo ThinkPad and a Macbook Pro but now I'm back to square 1. Could someone please help me in deciding which laptop would be best for EECS or just tell me which laptop you prefer?</p>
<p>Also, let me know which laptop you currently own and how you are liking it. that way, I can narrow down my choices or explore more options.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the help!</p>
<p>A true EECS major should be able to make do with any laptop in good working order.</p>
<p>That said, MacBook Pros are very common among both EECS students and professors. Thinkpad T series are the runner-up. The thing that both have in common is durability.</p>
<p>As for me? I carry around an Asus EeePC 1005P. It’s an awesome netbook with an Atom N450 processor and 1GB RAM. Does everything I need and hard to beat in portability.</p>
<p>Macs and Thinkpads are used by faculty. Macs are so common amongst Berkeley profs because it runs a stable UNIX-derived OS. Personally, I find OSX to be a desecration of UNIX, so I avoid Macs (plus, they’re a bit overpriced for what you get). I use a Thinkpad x201s with some flavor of Linux. It gets great battery life, and it’s too powerful for anything I throw at it. Sidenote: I’m surprised by how much I like Ubuntu. The hype is somewhat deserved.</p>
<p>Bottom line: get a laptop with good specs and load an OS that can run bash.</p>
<p>Macbooks hurt your wallet a lot. You could buy 2 or 3 nice laptops for the price of one. $1200 13 in macbook pro… 1800 for 15 in…ouch. You are paying more for the trendy name than the specs. I like Ubuntu too, though it can give you some headaches once in a while. </p>
<p>Summary:Only buy a mac if you wanna be a hipster and have lots of cash.</p>
<p>Apple laptops are excellent. Where else will you find a laptop with a 15’’ screen, Intel i5 (even i7), and 10 hours of battery life? Very, very rare. Sure, in most settings you’ll get less than that… but it’ll still blow the competition away. I know a good amount about computers and operating systems. The battery life and screen quality (the colors!) of a Mac are far superior to what you’ll find with most standard PC laptops. Apple is also very conscious about hazardous materials, and as such, their products are relatively ‘green’.</p>
<p>In addition, Mac OS (being based in part on the UNIX clone “Free BSD”) is much more secure than anything Windows will churn out. However, I’m using Windows 7 as my main system right now, and I’m very impressed. Still, you can’t beat the fearlessness of using a Mac OS with regards to viruses.</p>
<p>Linux? If you don’t have the time, don’t make it your top priority. I’ve messed with everything from Ubuntu to Gentoo. I would pick Mac OS or Windows 7 as your main operating system, because Linux can be too much headache for a college student who has other priorities.</p>
<p>By the way, BSD (the operating system that Mac OS’ core, Darwin, is based off of) stands for “Berkeley Software Distribution”. ;)</p>
<p>Apple has fantastic hardware, and you pay for it. You’re not getting any of that cheap. OS X? That’s the product of a massive orgy amongst a set of open source software that Apple paints over with Cocoa. Of course, they charge you for the aesthetics once again. By “based off BSD,” caltanner just means Darwin took software components from BSD and recycled them in Darwin. Linux isn’t plug and play, but neither is OS X. The difference is, with Linux, there’s always some way to get something to work. With OS X, you’ll just reach a dead end and realize OS X simply omits support. It’s stable, yes, but limited. As far as this whole headache thing you speak of…Many Linux distros have package managers (apt, yum, pacman = the most common) and that alone makes you life a hell of a lot easier. apt saves you hours of configuration. </p>
<p>tl;dr: Macs have good hardware. OS X is terrible. Macs don’t save you from headaches.</p>
<p>Edit: Bringing this back into scope…For EECS, you can get any computer, but it’s highly recommended that you get comfortable with command-line interface. Don’t listen to the fanbois; Macs are just a giant gimmick. Stick to an aggressive budget, and if that means you’ll be using Linux then fine. Worst that can happen is you’ll learn a thing or two about open source software. If it means you’ll use Windows and PuTTY to ssh into the school’s servers to do everything remotely, that’s fine too. Chances are, even if you’re thinking rationally now and plan to keep your computer all four years, you’ll be itching for a new computer in two years anyway. :)</p>
<p>sorry…but Im gonna have to dig this up 
I have the very same question and Im not really happy about the responses…</p>
<p>Guys please help !!</p>
<p>quiverfox, get whatever computer you want. Mac, Windows, Ubuntu, whatever. Get something durable, and something with enough power to be used for class. Personally, I have a little Asus netbook that I like to take with to class… it’s small, light, amazing battery, but not very powerful. I also have a ThinkPad, which is kinda bulky but is good for running programs for class (eclipse, emulators, virtualbox, etc).</p>
<p>Basically, get what you want. In terms of OS, pick the one you like most or are familiar with, it’s really just a matter of preference. In terms of what type of computer to get, ThinkPad and Macbooks are both pretty popular… but you’ll be fine with anything (except maybe a netbook, since they’re generally less powerful).</p>
<p>tl;dr: Get whatever laptop you want, pick and OS you know, and just make sure you trust your computer to run well.</p>
<p>Pretty much any laptop you get will work. Get whichever you like most like failure622 said. It also depends if you’re actually going to bring your laptop to class too or if it will spend most of it’s time hooked up to an external keyboard and/or monitor. I personally like Macs because of the aesthetics and OS. The screen is easy on the eyes too. I also can’t stand the touch pads on windows laptops. But a Mac will set you back a fair amount.</p>
<p>thanks guys But I am confused about the OS actually…I’ve worked Windows all my life but I hate the windows 8 OS and though Id love to put my hands around a mac…I’ve never used one.</p>
<p>Don’t know much about linux/ubuntu cause I’ve never needed that either…
Don’t know If I should continue with my W7 either…
The only other spec in Mac I found was that I could link my IPhone with it…but that’s not a major concern anyways…</p>
<p>By link do you mean syncing? If so, you can do that on windows too. </p>
<p>Once I went Mac I don’t think I’ll ever go back to PC. But I have thought about running ubuntu in the future on a desktop or something. I’m not experienced with ubuntu but I’ve used it at school a bit and it’s pretty much like windows as far as I could tell in terms of UI. I haven’t worked with windows at all for coding but I know in order to ssh into servers you have to use some extra programs like putty or something. For Macs (and I think ubuntu too?) you just have to pull up the terminal and type in the command and you’re all good. Maybe you should see how your first coding course goes with what you have currently and maybe use some of the computers on campus to see what ubuntu and Macs are like.</p>
<p>I guess…thanks and actually I meant sharing would be easier from the iphone to a mac…</p>