<p>Hello all,
I have a Computer Science degree which i just completed studying in a UK University.</p>
<p>I am taking o a Masters in Networked Systems.</p>
<p>I have used a laptop PC running windows throught the course of the degree.</p>
<p>My laptop is still fine but i am considering to buy a MBP.
Reason: its UNIX and i feel i need to learn unix as a CS student, and have been told many many others its great.</p>
<p>As im going to be studying networks modules and also doing a individul project. Will a MBP be more beneficial, or at least be as good as a PC for these networking modules?</p>
<p>Also as i have already started looking into the MBP's, which one should i go for.
MBP 13", 2.4GHZ, 4gb RAM, 250gb HDD
+ a free IPOD is costing me £858.93 , thats with Student Discount.</p>
<p>Thats all ive got money for, but never used a laptop other then 15.4".</p>
<p>For programming it seems small screen size. Not sure how much programming the Masters will require?</p>
<p>but dont have money for 15". What would you reccomend.</p>
<p>O yes i also forgot to mention i have inatalled ubuntu on my laptop. Had to do it because of a C coursework.
I sidnt find ubuntu very appealing . But how much do Lnux and FreeBSD differ from ubuntu and osx?</p>
<p>Ubuntu is Linux. It’s simply one of many Linux distributions. If the interface was what you didn’t like about Ubuntu then try Kubuntu or Knoppix or another KDE-heavy interface.</p>
<p>If you are looking to learn *nix. I would stay with any one of the various open source distro’s. Such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Opensuse, and the list goes on. The reason for this is that you will have access to all the required source code. This is not always the case in OSX, as you can imagine Apple has alot of proprietary code. And this can really be a pain under the right set of circumstances. As an avid linux user I can tell you that the sky is the limit as to what you can do with the interface. Linux is like lego’s build your own operating system basically. Check out mac4lin and cairo dock if you really want that OSX look with linux functionality. My appologies for any grammatical errors, I’m functioning on about 3 hours of sleep.</p>
<p>I’m in full agreeance with mechmark on this one. If you’re really looking to become “immersed” in your computer as a CS major, stick with Linux. You have so much more functionality from your terminal, and you really can do just about anything you want.</p>
<p>well i got the macbook pro 13’’ and i’m also majoring in CS and I think it’s fine. r u planning to put windows on it? cause if u r then u might want to amp it up a bit.</p>
<p>Things to note:
-Linux is not Unix, although it is Linus’ Unix, it is not the same, and they differ on a ton of things, especially nowadays.
-OS X is more like Unix than Linux is, because it is actually based off of a Unix kernel, FreeBSD to be specific and if you install Xcode, you will have a g++ and gcc compiler on your computer
-If you are programming for OS’s I would suggest using a virtual machine on whatever you do, it sucks to compile and run your code/test OS and have it crash and have to reboot because of it, so have your testing be on a virtual machine, VMWare is one of the, if not the best for Mac, for programming in my OS class we use virtual machines running FreeBSD’s
-Don’t get me wrong, using Linux will help you learn your OS but it isn’t necessary</p>
build your own operating system basically. Check out mac4lin and cairo dock if you really want that OSX look with linux functionality. My appologies for any grammatical errors, I’m functioning on about 3 hours of sleep.</p>