<p>Hey guys, i'm going to berkeley next school year and thinking about getting a laptop. im going to major in computer science and im wondering what type/brand of laptop should i get. does a mac work well for computer science major at berkeley?or should i get a windows
thankyou</p>
<p>Yeah, I wonder the same thing. I only saw CS professors and GSIs using a mac. Why is that? :)</p>
<p>BSD or Linux. MacOS may be favored by some because it has BSD under the GUI.</p>
<p>Hardware need not be high end or anything like that. If you actually carry it around a lot, you may want a small light one.</p>
<p>so people majoring in computer science don’t really bring their laptops to class?</p>
<p>Get a PC and dual-boot/wubi Ubuntu.</p>
<p>I’m still debating on whether I should bring a PC or a Mac to Berkeley. I’m also thinking of majoring in computer science. I’ve heard that Macs are more popular because they are Unix-based (or something). And Windows is not Unix-based (or something). I really don’t know anything… So anyone out there, give us some advice!</p>
<p>spend more time finding an OS that you enjoy and less time fighting one that someone told you was good. vmware always makes it possible to boot Windows/Linux when you need it.</p>
<p>None of the classes need a specific OS but the instructions for some might be written with Linux in mind because the instructional solaris machines are often considered to be the baseline for running a project. Still everyone manages to get things working on their own computer, that’s going to be part of your job too.</p>
<p>Okay. Anyone else?</p>
<p>Is there anyone from the computer science major who regrets / feels happy about buying a Mac or PC? Could one also include reasons why?</p>
<p>The answer is that it doesn’t matter. Stick to what you know how to use. On your bringing laptops to class comment, laptops are banned from my CS 61C class.</p>
<p>Why are they banned?</p>
<p>Does the majority use Mac or PC?</p>
<p>You will have less software compatibility issues if you get a PC</p>
<p>Well, isn’t the bulk of computer science just coding? You can easily code on both Macs and PCs. So software compatibility wouldn’t be a huge issue, unless… is software compatibility going to affect my computer science classes?</p>
<p>OS doesn’t even matter. Both OSX and Windows have the ability to access the instructional servers. You could probably go through the entire CS major without having a computer at all because of the lab servers. In fact, I actually prefer coding in 330 Soda sometimes because the screens are pretty big compared to my laptop (dual quad core Westmeres and 6 gb of ram doesn’t hurt either!).</p>
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<p>As long as whatever OS you use can use putty and winscp, which are two useful programs for connecting and modifying your class accounts from your laptop (aka when you’re in your dorm), then you should be fine. I believe Macs and Windows can both use those programs, and Linux can too. (I believe the computers in the labs use UNIX right?)</p>
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<p>PuTTY and WinSCP are versions of ssh and scp adapted for Microsoft Windows. MacOS and Linux typically use (and include) OpenSSH (a descendant of the original ssh developed on Unix), which names the programs ssh and scp.</p>
<p>I’d argue that you’d have less software compatibility issues if you use Mac.</p>
<p>It’s quite simple: Mac has BSD lying under it, it’s simple, and it works.</p>
<p>I personally run Linux, but that’s because I don’t mind the upkeep. For several people, they’d just rather plunk down the $500 extra and be worry-free.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Windows + CS = nightmare IMO.</p>
<p>How is Windows + CS a nightmare?</p>
<p>Someone had to borrow my windows computer because an EE program wouldn’t work on their mac.</p>