Laptop or Desktop For Computer Science

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>screenjunkies:
The fact that you’re still asking “desktop or laptop” tells me there is still something about a desktop that you feel is important - that a laptop won’t do. If that’s true, can you help us understand?</p>

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<p>basicspace - I apologize! I missed that.</p>

<p>That said, I would love to hear where you got the idea of Windows being the “industry standard” from.</p>

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<p>@NightShadeQueen LOL D, that’s pretty funny. Funnier than F#. And who uses LaTeX editors? They exist? LaTeX is so easy to get used to. Stackexchange for a week and you’ll be a pro. $\frac{\partial z}{\partial x}=\pi+z_0-5^{-3}$
@Meander There are open source software for mac too…?
@basicspace You didn’t read what I wrote, please read comments before you go around throwing names.

  • I find the mac keyboard for MacBooks much more comfortable.
  • Duh, no crap Macs have Java too. But it updates only once in a while. And even then it’s very slick and not annoying. Meanwhile in Windows, every time I log in an annoying pop about a damn updates comes up. It’s just annoying and not very user-friendly.</p>
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<p>Well, I just looked at numbers. Windows has a market share of 87% across all its versions, which imo clearly makes it the dominant OS over Mac OS X with 7.5%.</p>

<p>That said, I could have used better word choice than industry. I’m sure that at most colleges you’ll see an excess of Macs, while if you go into supercomputer territory everything is Linux. Anyways, I was thinking industry as in consumer software. Like if you’re developing video games or viruses or whatever, you’re looking at Windows first.</p>

<p>And I never threw around names. Personal OS preferences for everyone. </p>

<p>@original topic
Laptops are better than desktops in every way, except power vs. price. For CS, you’re not running Crysis in 3D glassesless mode, so a laptop will really do.</p>

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<p>The entire point of LaTeX editors is “I’m lazy enough to not want to switch out of this terminal window to compile my LaTeX”, not “I’m too lazy to type LaTeX”</p>

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<p>@basicspace Yeah, that’s right. Although as for the 87%, I’m sure most (not all) of them don’t have a Mac because of the price. I can think of at least 30 people I know who have Windows but are dying to get a Mac, but $2k is much more than ~$300 (computers for average users). And sorry for the “throwing names” thing.</p>

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<p>I think you’re confused about what percentage of commercial software goes to individual consumers :P</p>

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<p>This is the MIT Media Lab, those towers lying on the far side can’t be running Mac OS X can they?</p>

<p>Perhaps in this case Macs are only used on a laptop so the guy can sit closer to test the droid yet still doesn’t lose his cool?</p>

<p><a href=“http://static.arstechnica.net/assets/2010/10/Media_lab_robotics-thumb-640xauto-17408.jpg[/url]”>http://static.arstechnica.net/assets/2010/10/Media_lab_robotics-thumb-640xauto-17408.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>this thread will probably go well</p>

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<p>^lol</p>

<p>MITChris will still be my favorite admissions officer even if I don’t get in regular decision either.</p>

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<p>Yep, just as I expected. ANOTHER Windows vs. Mac thread. *sigh This isn’t reddit, peeps. Each one has its own benefits and downsides. Of course, no one can beat my friend who according to rumors, still runs MS DOS. XD</p>

<p>Btw, all of the computers in that picture look like macs. The middle ones are definitely macs, you can see the apple logo on the monitors. And the ones on the far right look like those funky Mac desktops. </p>

<p>OP, get a laptop, the few tangible benefits from having a desktop is that it’s much harder to steal, and much better for gaming. But honestly, from the amount and difficulty of the stuff you do at MIT (just the coursework alone), I don’t think you’ll have enough time to really milk the desktop-gaming benefit. Besides, wouldn’t you rather be out and about? Also, I think someone pointed out here that you need a laptop for certain classes. So there. Get a laptop. And do you really want to have to deal with the problem of getting your precious desktop there, or making sure it’s safe while on break or (really…) lugging it back home?</p>