<p>My macbook broke so I need a "cheaper" laptop (not focused on games). After much time on the forums, the consensus is that I wouldn't need autocad or other design software because school's most likely have computer labs (which I agree with) but I may more than likely need Matlab/Scilab/Octave, word/powerpoint/excel (which I can hopefully do on googledocs or Libreoffice. So I'm just wondering how a Acer C720 (2GB memory, Intel Celeron processor) will fare against these numeric computational programs. Anyone have any ideas? (Will be running Kubuntu/ Xubuntu variant to keep ram and processor at a minimum)</p>
<p>LibreOffice/OpenOffice are nice until you have to collaborate on a lengthy report or presentation with others and the two do not have perfect compatibility.</p>
<p>^Can’t saving as a pdf resolve this issue or are we talking about continuous report editing? How popular is google docs in terms of colab?</p>
<p>PDFs aren’t generally directly editable but are great ways to pass the finished product around in a cross-platform manner.</p>
<p>I’ve done a fair bit of collaboration in Google Docs but not on scientific publication type work like lab reports. Mostly just for organization and planning for various clubs and groups. The main reports have always been in a more fully-featured office suite. Collaborating between MS Word and Libre/OpenOffice Writer is decent. Not so much when it comes to PowerPoint.</p>
<p>The solution, IMO, is to use a truly platform-neutral typesetting system like LaTeX and beamer. That can produce PDFs directly and will compile the same way on all platforms. It is very, very popular for actual journal publication. It doesn’t seem to be widely known by undergraduates, however, and has a learning curve, as it’s essentially styled as a markup language.</p>
<p>Ah thank you.
I guess I need to find a way around this… I hope there isn’t too many projects that need me to collaborate with powerpoint.</p>
<p>Second question, how “powerful” does a computer have to be in order to do the numeric computation? Any tried to use Scilab/matlab on a toaster? </p>
<p>That depends on what sort of computation. I’ve done simple things on a toaster, like running Runge-Kutta on the Blasius boundary layer. The bigger the problem, though, the bigger the necessary computer. I have a data analysis script that takes 20 minutes to run on my laptop, which is older but still runs a Core 2 Duo and 4GB of RAM. The same script takes 1 to 2 minutes on my desktop.</p>
<p>Google Docs has gotten quite good and is popular for group projects, in my experience.</p>
<p>I use Linux on a cheap laptop. Great for programming and I use Octave as well. Never had a problem.</p>
<p>For specialized software or high performance, your school probably has computer labs with workstations available.</p>
<p>The only reason I’d buy a chromebook for school to do a STEM degree is to have a cheap, portable way to remote access a beefy desktop that I’ll run all my resource consuming software on . Chromebooks are honestly only good for surfing the net and some basic apps, that’s what they’re primarily for, minimalist build to allow light users a cheap alternative to machines that has way too much power for their uses and will be a waste of money.</p>
<p>You can get an inexpensive non-Chromebook laptop to run Linux on. 2GB is probably on the low end of the RAm you would need to really have a useful computer. I would start with at least 4GB.</p>
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<p>Regarding both these questions, I’m planning to be an EE. How important is getting a non-Chromebook laptop to learn MATLAB or take CS classes? Or will computer labs suffice? </p>
<p>Many CS departments’ computing facilities are Linux/Unix based, so (if this is the case with the CS department at the school you attend) having Linux on your own computer may make it easier to do CS assignments without having to be connected to the campus network.</p>
<p>GNU Octave is supposed to be MATLAB-like, but others can tell you better how well it substitutes for MATLAB. The real MATLAB is available on Linux:
<a href=“http://www.mathworks.com/support/sysreq/sv-r2014a/index.html?sec=linux”>http://www.mathworks.com/support/sysreq/sv-r2014a/index.html?sec=linux</a>
<a href=“System Requirements for MATLAB - MATLAB & Simulink”>System Requirements for MATLAB - MATLAB & Simulink;
<p>Thanks. Is C Unix Based? I think my school is doing C now</p>
<p>Right now it seems popular to use a chrome book using google docs as a general purpose quick-boot in a pervasive wifi environment like a school. Google docs is used with cloud storage. I would never run MATLab or anything computational on one. I would use it as the general purpose planner, and use a desktop for the heavy lifting, as @ImUrHuckleberry suggests. Once, years ago, I tried to run a particular FIR filter using MATLab on my laptop and it took forever. I switched to a desktop with the same processor and essentially the same specs, and it converged right away. Ever since then, I have been very aware that some compromises need to be made to shoehorn all those parts into a laptop! Most people host serious computational power on a desktop. Similar experience to @boneh3ad.</p>
<p>If I were entering a campus today, I would think seriously about a chrome book even over a laptop (even a used one at the same price) because of its instant-on, and seamless compatibility with cloud storage and Google Docs. I would wait to evaluate what further I needed to run Octave, Matlab, CAD, etc. on once I arrived. Compilers tend to be small, thus easy to host on anything (even a Raspberry Pi), so a chrome book may be ok for CS. Engineers tend to use 4GL (e.g. Matlab), which require more horsepower, but CS usually travel much lighter.</p>
<p>Ah, I already have a chromebook and for those reasons you mentioned. This post is kinda a necro. I wanted to know how important “power laptops” were for an ECE curriculum. Also, would it suffice just to computer labs (desktops)? It’s economical and I got a college budget.</p>
<p>I’m leaning towards keeping my chromebook and not purchasing a new laptop just for ECE. I’ll use the computer labs for now.</p>
<p>Great idea. After spending a bit of time at school, there will be no question about what you need to do. It will be a cultural thing that we here on CC can’t answer- observing your coevals and getting a feel for what you need will answer it.</p>
<p>@xscreenname UNIX itself is written in C. In fact C was invented specifically to implement UNIX.</p>
<p>I have ran Xubuntu on my Nexus 7 tablet before. You could run Libreoffice or Octave and most open source dev tools. </p>
<p>(Update: Re-read the post. This model uses an x86 arch. This changes my answer.)</p>
<p>Most software for Linux should run under this. IIRC, Matlab and AutoCAD both have Linux versions. The big issue is if one of your classes requires a piece of software that only runs on Windows. I was poking around and it seems you can run Windows 8 with some problems at the moment:</p>
<p><a href=“**GUIDE** Install Windows 8 on the Acer C720 — Acer Community”>http://community.acer.com/t5/Chromebook/GUIDE-Install-Windows-8-on-the-Acer-C720/td-p/217491</a></p>