<p>I <em>teach</em> college-level computer science on a MacBook Pro. So do an increasing number of my colleagues.</p>
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I <em>teach</em> college-level computer science on a MacBook Pro. So do an increasing number of my colleagues.
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Works fine in that case, since it means you're not an M$ shop teaching nonsense like .NET/C#. But if the professors are using Microsoft junk, there's nothing the students can do but use it as well.</p>
<p>Anyway, you would be surprised how little many computer scientists know about the practical usage of computers. For example, Djikstra refused to use a computer for much of his career. Students are probably not going to be much better.</p>
<p>My advice: Don't buy a computer until you're actually at school!!</p>
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I say yes, because most college students wouldn't even know what the Option key is.
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<p>Just a wild guess, it's the one labeled "option" :) Even if they didn't know that was the key to press to choose what OS to boot, it's just a 5 second google to find out.</p>
<p>I agree about computer science being far more than just knowing about computers, but I would hope that a CS student would be able to figure out how to dual boot or run virtualization.</p>
<p>I vote Macs are very suitable for CS students. I wouldn't go through the trouble to run visual studio, but sure you can if you have to.</p>
<p>"My advice: Don't buy a computer until you're actually at school!!"</p>
<p>Good point. Some schools' infrastructures are predominantly Mac, and some are Win. If you don't really care which one you have (schools generally support both), go with the campus favorite. Your school will probably tell you which it is if you do want to get it before you arrive on campus.</p>
<p>3 out of the 4 CS professors I've had so far have used Apple laptops in class. Honestly you're more likely to have to dual boot/virtualize in Windows than you are in Mac OS X. All my CS labs used computers running Linux.</p>
<p>As a CS major you should be familiar with any fairly popular OS and not have any problem switching between them.</p>
<p>I know of a dozen people who use Macs and are CS students and none have had any issues because of platform compatability issues. Given that the student is a computer science major, I highly doubt that simply pushing the option key upon bootup is going to pose that much of a challenge to the him/her.</p>
<p>Mac OS X beats Windows XP/Vista out of the water, but this is personal preference and one can only definitely say for sure after playing around with it at an Apple Store. After 5 years, there is no way I could ever go back to a PC. </p>
<p>But anyways, the new unibody MacBooks are rock-solid in construction and unparalled in design; they feel expensive and look expensive. I've begun noticing more and more of them in lectures these days.</p>