<p>1) Is it better to get a laptop, or a desktop if your intended course is Course 6, also, what operating system, and why? </p>
<p>2) How much time do MIT students have left to actually "Game", after spending time doing coursework, studying and research.</p>
<p>1) Laptop. Portability is pretty useful. OS - up to you. I suggest a Mac. Mac has good compilers for many of the “more popular” programming languages. Objective-C, for example, is strictly Mac. However, I also have Parallels Desktop so I can run Windows 7 and compile C/C++/C#/ASP/whatever. So a Mac is good because you get all the Mac-exclusive things and you can still get Windows.
2) Yeah - there’s always discretionary time. If you’re into gaming, I take back the Mac thing. I just personally don’t have the attention span to play games, but I think that if you like gaming then you should get a Windows laptop.</p>
<p>I think you’ll definitely want a laptop. Son is Course 6 and i sat in on a required CS coursed during Parents Weekend. During the course, the professor asked the students to partake in different coding questions, so a laptop was very necessary there. He has a Mac – used to have a Lenovo – and I don’t think he’d go back – he’s pretty happy with the Mac. As for gaming, son plays a little to unwind, but really doesn’t have too much time for that. But there is down time – just depends upon what other EC activities you are doing.</p>
<p>You definitely want a laptop. If you want to get both, that’s cool, but it’s convenient to be able to do your work anywhere, since you might find yourself working with other people often.</p>
<p>As for OS, most course 6 people seem to go with Debathena or Mac. I switched from Windows to Mac during freshman year, and I’ve been pretty happy about that :)</p>
<p>Anyone see any Microsoft Surface Pros on campus? I’m a diehard Windows user, and it seems perfect for CS, what with its portability mixed with power.</p>
<p>You’d think that more people would be on Windows for CS, seeing as its the industry standard, at least for the consumer sector (correct me if I’m wrong). And Parallels? Pshhh. Hackintosh-itize dat shizz. You’re an MIT student, are you not?</p>
<p>There is at least one course six class (6.005) that requires that you bring a laptop to class. It will also be useful to have a portable computer so that you can code around other people in a variety of locations. So laptop.</p>
<p>I’m shocked to hear that Windows is the industry standard. Funny, everyone I know with a real coding job has a MBP…(It’s a joke that you’re required to own a mac to join [url=<a href=“http://sipb.mit.edu/]SIPB[/url”>http://sipb.mit.edu/]SIPB[/url</a>]. I’ve been assured this is not actually true and my linux machine is just fine)</p>
<p>All the servers around here are Linux. Everyone uses git for everything unless you’re weird and use svn. Unless you want to fight with Windows git…I don’t recommend it. Plus, debathena. Debathena is kind of awesome.</p>
<p>And just being honest…I hate the surface with a thousand dying suns for having a locked UEFI. </p>
<p>I see a sea of Thinkpads and Macs, with the occasional Acer and Dell and Toshiba. Of the non-Macs, I can think of 2 people I know who don’t dual boot Ubuntu/only have Ubuntu. The vast majority of people use macs or linux.</p>
<p>@lidusha - 6.005 is a 6-3 requirement but not a requirement of 6-[1-2]?</p>
<p>
Oops. Yes. 6.005 is a requirement for 6-3 and for 6-7. It is only a requirement for 6-2 if you want to use it and it is not a requirement for 6-1 at all. For the curious, there is more info here: [MIT</a> Course Catalog: Course 6-1, 6-2, 6-3](<a href=“Welcome! < MIT”>Welcome! < MIT)</p>
<p>1) Definitely a laptop if it will be your only computer because you need the portability. I’d probably go with a MBP or an Air if you have a desktop too.</p>
<p>2) As much time as you want really, just decide how you want to balance your time…</p>
<p>@basicspace Mac actually has better compilers than Windows. The only thing about a Mac is that you can’t compile the .NET languages (C/C#/VB/ASP/F#/etc.) on it. But in reality, Python/Perl/Ruby/other recent languages are most common nowadays and most of the .NET languages have become somewhat obsolete (let the fight over that statement begin). Mac is also better because the keyboard is more comfortable and the mousepad is awesome. UI is great and everything is so slick - no annoying Java updates, no popups out of nowhere, or dumb dialog boxes, nothing. Mac + Parallels is the best combination in my eyes. Parallels is so much more convenient than Hackintosh, by the way.</p>
<p>@nightshadequeen</p>
<p>So Do you use a MacBook dual booted with Linux?</p>
<p>basicspace - No.</p>
<p>@screenjunkies</p>
<p>Nope! Pure Ubuntu over here.</p>
<p>@undefined123</p>
<p>C/C++/D have Linux compilers. I assume you can get gcc to work on a mac and no one uses D anyways.</p>
<p>Considering the ample amount of open source editors,wouldn’t a Windows-based platform be more suitable for a comp sci major?</p>
<p>Honestly?</p>
<p>…Most people I know use vim and emacs. The occasional person likes nano or gedit. A couple of people use dedicated LaTeX editors. A truly hardcore person might try to [play</a> chess in sed](<a href=“https://github.com/bolknote/SedChess]play”>GitHub - bolknote/SedChess: Шахматы, написанные на языке утилиты sed). </p>
<p>I don’t remember the last time I touched IDLE.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>(1) Huh? I’d be surprised if there are more editors for Windows than Linux-based systems.</p>
<p>(2) More importantly, why would you think that having a plethora of editors is important? What’s your use case here?</p>
<p>EDIT: Darn, NightShadeQueen beat me :P</p>
<p>Eh, You can’t say that “macs have better keyboards and designs” because there are literally thousands of Windows laptops, versus like 2 models of Macbooks. If you go up to high end Windows, in the $1k price range, the laptops look really sweet too (although perhaps a little derivative of Apple).</p>
<p>Anyways, a matter of preference what you use, really. I’ll probably install all 3 on mine, so I’m good.</p>
<p>No one mentioned keyboards…?</p>
<p>… wait.</p>
<p>You’re a ■■■■■, aren’t you? </p>
<p>Dangit trolls.</p>
<p>Yeah, not a ■■■■■. I hate how liberally people throw around that term around here. I’m expressing my personal preference for Windows; Macs are cool too, and I never disparaged them in any way. </p>
<p>To quote undefined123:
“Mac is also better because the keyboard is more comfortable and the mousepad is awesome. UI is great and everything is so slick - no annoying Java updates, no popups out of nowhere, or dumb dialog boxes, nothing.”
To reiterate, Macs don’t have better keyboards than PCs necessarily, I’ll give you the mousepad thing because that’s the best part of a Mac, and Macs need Java too, although I’m sure Apple does it for you automatically.</p>
<p>Please do some research before you go around throwing names.</p>
<p>This thread asks for advice. Anymore advice on</p>
<p>1) Desktop vs Laptop?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>