<p>I want to buy a laptop for my college before I head to college this fall. So I want to know which operating system is better ( Mac OR Windows ) for Engineering students. I am trying to look and judge between the two on the basis of convenience, helpfulness and effectiveness while studying an engineering major. I think of studying either Computer Science or Electrical Engineering or Biomedical Engineering.</p>
<p>Your profile lists Stanford, so here is what Stanford’s CS department says about its computing environment:</p>
<p><a href=“https://cs.stanford.edu/content/computers-email[/url]”>https://cs.stanford.edu/content/computers-email</a>
<a href=“https://itservices.stanford.edu/service/unixcomputing[/url]”>https://itservices.stanford.edu/service/unixcomputing</a></p>
<p>If you want to be able to work on stuff on your own computer, it may be useful to have it run Linux for similarity to the computers provided for CS course use. You can always contact the CS department to check whether they have any suggestions.</p>
<p>For other majors, you may want to check the appropriate web pages of those majors.</p>
<p>RAM is cheap and plentiful. Go with whatever platform you feel comfortable with for day-to-day use and work on your school-related Unixy stuff inside a VMWare virtual machine.</p>
<p>For undergraduates, I don’t think it really matters that much. You’ll occasionally run into “This software doesn’t run on Macs” but not that often. The bigger issue if you go with Mac is to make sure you’re an expert. You’ll have fewer resources to assist you than if you chose PC. </p>
<p>At the graduate level, you’ll run into many pieces of software that are only designed to run on a PC.</p>
<p>Here’s what I posted to someone who asked about this recently:</p>
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<p>It’s also easier to remote into Stanford’s high-performance clusters (UNIX or not) with a Mac–terminal is so easy to use, and I hate PuTTY.</p>
<p>Another thing: CS106A requires you to use a special “Stanford version” of Eclipse, which is really buggy and crashes all the time on Windows. The Xcode version isn’t that way.</p>
<p>With a Mac, it’s also easy to dual boot with Windows in case there is a program that you really need but that only runs on Windows… but I haven’t come across such a program.</p>
<p>(By the way, I’m finishing in CS at Stanford.)</p>
<p>I’m a ChemE UG and use a Mac. When I need to use a piece of Window’s software I just turn on my VM, which runs a copy of WinXP my school gives out for free.</p>
<p>ok so after reading all i think i should buy a MAC and then install windows on it too in case i come across any PC specific things…</p>
<p>I love CS106A. I already watched the videos of all the lectures of that course on the Stanfords Youtube Channel. Prof. Meheran Sahani ROCKS !!!</p>
<p>I see people have problems with that all the time. “As long as I run a VM, I should be fine…” then they’re in the lab because the software won’t run on their Mac.</p>
<p>tushar009, I think you should dual-boot with Windows only if you need to. I so far haven’t needed to, so it would have been a waste of effort to install Windows when I got my MacBook. Stanford’s CS department also gives free copies of Windows 7 (for download), so don’t bother buying a copy of Windows.</p>
<p>I had Mehran when I took 106A–he’s really awesome and not afraid to make not-so-clean jokes. :p</p>
<p>Another HS senior here:
How many engineering students use macs? More than 50%? For undergrad, is most of the software compatible with OSX? I know that the popular stuff like matlab, autocad, and other modeling software can all run native in OSX. But, I hear all the time that Unix on OSX is easier to use than the Windows equivalent. I have no clue what they’re talking about though. Can someone elaborate?</p>
<p>I’m fine using both systems. I just want to use the more effective and convenient system.</p>