Looking to Purchase a Laptop, Any Suggestions? (IT student, new to Mac)
I am totally in the dark when it comes to Apple computers. I've used a few of them in school but never really learned anything about them (or owned one for that matter). My problem is next year I'm attending a college that requires certain computer specifications and I'll be taking classes that require certain software. As of right now, it would be impossible for me to install the hardware based on my current OS (Debian Woody 3.0)... it's just not compatable with Linux. There is no way in hell I want another PC with Windoze.
Thank God the software packages and what the school recommends specification-wise for computers are for both Mac and MS. I've been looking at the ibook and PowerBook laptops and since I know nothing about Apple computers it's impossible for me to determine what I need.
I'll be studing and working with Information Technologies. I'll need a notebook that can handle programming in C, C++, Cobal, Java, php, other internet languages, etc.; and of course, other school work. Can anyone help me out here? What would be a good laptop to purchase?
Edit: Also, I'm coming from working with Linux and Windows. Is there anything I need to watch out for when owning a Mac compared to these other OS's?
Thank God the software packages and what the school recommends specification-wise for computers are for both Mac and MS. I've been looking at the ibook and PowerBook laptops and since I know nothing about Apple computers it's impossible for me to determine what I need.
I'll be studing and working with Information Technologies. I'll need a notebook that can handle programming in C, C++, Cobal, Java, php, other internet languages, etc.; and of course, other school work. Can anyone help me out here? What would be a good laptop to purchase?
Edit: Also, I'm coming from working with Linux and Windows. Is there anything I need to watch out for when owning a Mac compared to these other OS's?
Comments
Welcome to AppleInsider, Gecks.
Here's a start for you: http://www.apple.com/education/hed/compsci/
Be sure to skim all the way through the PDF links in the bottom right of the page. A couple of key words from it: GCC 3.3; C; C++; Objective-C; Objective-C++; Java; Fortan; Lisp; "Implementations of Microsoft?s C# are also available"; AppleScript; Ruby; Python; PHP; Tomcat/JSP; Axis; mySQL; C99-compliant libm; Vectorized digital signal processing (vDSP); BLAS (Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms) Levels I,II,and III; LAPACK (Linear Algebra Package); vMathLib; vBigNum; CHUD...
There are lots of tools and languages at your disposal.
Xcode: the ultimate toolbox.
Add to that all the third-party goodies you can install...
Add to that the native X11 libraries and X-Windows system...
Add to that all the awesome tools that come with using a system built on UNIX (FreeBSD)...
I think you see where I'm going.
Hopefully Kickaha can chime in here with his experiences. Half of UNC's computer science department (where Kickaha is a student) staff has switched to using PowerBooks and they love it.
There was a thread some time ago about getting iBooks for computer science students. You might also find helpful some of the comments there:
ibooks for computer science switchers!
Right now, both the iBooks and PowerBooks are pretty good. They both use the G4 processor. Reasons for choosing the PowerBook over an iBook? More CPU power, higher-res displays, DVD-burner. Reason for choosing the iBook over the PowerBook? It's significantly cheaper.
Welcome to the forums and please feel free to post any other questions, thoughts, or comments. Cheers!
I think your best bet would be to get a cheap iBook bottom of the line and save your money for a nice G5 when you realize how much macs rock!
I am an IT student as well and (one of) my roommates is a CS student...
I use macs exclusively and he does everything on his iBook... he has a PC tower just to play a few (shitty) games and to have a screen name on all the time...
it works very well...
there should be no software concerns that you should have... there is always a solution.....
except for microsoft access... but you can use the lab computers for that...
what school are you going to?
I've been really eyeing the ibook lately, mainly because of the price and the fact that I don't need as much power as the PowerBook offers. I skimmed over the pdf file in Brad's first link and I'm really liking the included compiliers and development libraries that come with OS X. Also the fact of no-registry (can I get an 'amen'?). I enjoyed Linux but, as anyone can tell you, it can be a pain to install anything and get the damn thing to work on different systems.
Paul: I'm going to Florida State University, starting a 'pre-freshman' year you could say, this summer.
Another quick question. I know this is probably a given but since OS X is based on UNIX, does the Terminal function the same in Panther as it does in, say, gnu/Linux?
but it IS unix...
i'll leave that to a resident CLI expert around here...
Originally posted by Gecks
I know this is probably a given but since OS X is based on UNIX, does the Terminal function the same in Panther as it does in, say, gnu/Linux?
For the most part, yes.
You have your choice of several different shells. The default in Panther is bash. In older versions of Mac OS X, the default was tcsh. It was changed, I suspect, due to popular demand. Mac OS X also includes zsh and csh, Mac OS X also comes with all the typical shell commands like less, more, pico, vi, emacs, etc. as well as a number of Mac OS X-specific command-line tools like "screencapture" and "say", the former of which takes a picture of your screen and the latter makes the computer speak the arguments you give it.
Here is the "ls" on my /bin and /sbin directories respectively, for example. This is from a (nearly) clean install of Mac OS X and the developer tools. I say nearly because I don't think I've put anything in either of these directories...
[ dd kill pwd sync
bash df ln rcp tcsh
cat domainname ls rm test
chmod echo mkdir rmdir zsh
cp ed mv sh zsh-4.1.1
csh expr pax sleep
date hostname ps stty
SystemStarter md5 newfs_msdos
autodiskmount mknod nfsd
badsect mount nfsiod
clri mount_afp nologin
dmesg mount_cd9660 ping
dump mount_cddafs ping6
dumpfs mount_devfs quotacheck
dynamic_pager mount_fdesc rdump
fsck mount_ftp reboot
fsck_hfs mount_hfs restore
fsck_msdos mount_msdos route
halt mount_nfs routed
ifconfig mount_ntfs rrestore
init mount_smbfs rtsol
ip6fw mount_synthfs service
ipfw mount_udf shutdown
kerberosautoconfig mount_volfs slattach
kextload mount_webdav tunefs
kextunload newfs umount
mach_init newfs_hfs
And /usr/bin and /usr/sbin, respectively:
groups printf
CFInfoPlistConverter gunzip procmail
a2p gzcat profiles
aclocal gzexe projectInfo
aclocal-1.6 gzip psed
addftinfo h2ph pstopdf
afmtodit h2xs pstruct
appleping hdid pwpolicy
appletviewer hdiutil pydoc
apply head python
apropos headerdoc2html python2.3
ar heap pythonw
arch hexdump pythonw2.3
as host quota
asa hostinfo ranlib
at hpftodit rcs
at_cho_prn htdigest rcs-checkin
atlookup htpasswd rcs2log
atos iconv rcsclean
atprint id rcsdiff
atq ident rcsmerge
atrm idlj redo_prebinding
atstatus ifnames refer
autoconf indent renice
autoheader indxbib reset
autom4te info rev
automake infocmp rlog
automake-1.6 infokey rlogin
autoreconf infotocap rmic
autoscan install rmid
autoupdate install-info rmiregistry
awk install_name_tool rpcclient
b2m iodbc-config rpcgen
banner ipf-mod.pl rs
basename irb rsh
bashbug isc-config.sh rsync
batch jar ruby
bc jarsigner ruptime
biff java rview
bison javac rvim
bridget javaconfig rwho
bsdmake javadoc s2p
bunzip2 javah sample
bzcat javap sar
bzcmp javatool say
bzdiff jdb sc_usage
bzegrep jikes scp
bzfgrep join screen
bzgrep jot script
bzip2 kdestroy sdiff
bzip2recover kdump security
bzless keytool sed
bzmore killall segedit
c++ kinit serialver
c++-3.3 klist servertool
c++3 kpasswd setregion
c++filt kswitch sftp
c++filt3 ktrace shar
c2ph kvno shlock
c_rehash lam showmount
cal last sips
calendar lastcomm size
cancel latency sliceprint
cap_mkdb ld slogin
captoinfo ldapadd smbcacls
cc ldapcompare smbclient
certtool ldapdelete smbcontrol
checkgid ldapmodify smbcquotas
checknr ldapmodrdn smbpasswd
chflags ldappasswd smbspool
chfn ldapsearch smbstatus
chgrp ldapwhoami smbtar
chpass leaks smbtree
chsh leave smbutil
ci less snmpbulkget
cksum lessecho snmpbulkwalk
clear lesskey snmpcheck
cmp lex snmpconf
cmpdylib lex++ snmpdelta
co libnetcfg snmpdf
col libtool snmpget
colcrt lipo snmpgetnext
colldef lkbib snmpinform
colrm locate snmpnetstat
column lock snmpset
comm lockfile snmpstatus
compileHelp logger snmptable
compress login snmptest
config logname snmptranslate
cpan look snmptrap
cpio lookbib snmpusm
cpp lorder snmpvacm
cpp-3.3 lp snmpwalk
cpp3 lpoptions soelim
crlrefresh lppasswd sort
crontab lpq splain
cscope lpr split
ctags lprm srm
cups-config lpstat ssh
cupstestppd lsbom ssh-add
curl lsvfs ssh-agent
curl-config m4 ssh-keygen
cut mDNS ssh-keyscan
cvs machine states
cvs-diff-branch mail strings
cvs-make-branch mailq strip
cvs-merge-branch mailstat su
cvs-revert make subtitle2pgm
cvs-view-diffs makeinfo sudo
cvsbug malloc_history sum
dbmmanage man sw_vers
dc manpath tack
defaults md tail
diff mencoder talk
diff3 merge tar
diffpp mesg tbl
diffstat mib2c tcextract
dig mig tclsh
dirname mkafmmap tclsh8.4
disable mkbom tcopy
distcc mkdep tdbbackup
distccd mkfifo tdbtool
distccschedd mklocale tee
ditto mktemp telnet
dprofpp mmroff testparm
drutil more testprns
dscl mp2enc texi2dvi
dsperfmonitor mpeg2enc texi2html
du mplayer texindex
eaytest msgs tfmtodit
ebrowse native2ascii tftp
efax nbdst tic
efix nc tiff2icns
egrep neqn tiffutil
emacs net time
emacs-21.2.1 net-snmp-config tkmib
emacs-undumped newaliases tnameserv
emacsclient nfsstat toe
enable nibtool top
enc2xs nice tops
encode_keychange nicl touch
enscript nidump tput
env nifind tr
eqn nigrep traptoemail
eqn2graph niload troff
error nireport true
etags niutil tset
ex nm tsort
expand nmblookup tty
expect nmedit ul
extcheck nohup uname
false nroff uncompress
fax nslookup unexpand
fetchmail nsupdate unifdef
fgrep ntlm_auth uniq
file ntp-wait units
find ntpq unvis
find2perl ocs unzip
findsmb od update_prebinding
finger odbctest uptime
fixPrecomps open users
fixproc open-x11 uudecode
flex opendiff uuencode
flex++ openssl uuidgen
fmt orbd vcdxbuild
fold osacompile vcdxgen
formail osalang vers_string
fpr osascript vgrind
from otool vi
fs_usage over view
fsplit pagesize vim
fstat pagestuff vimdiff
ftp passwd vimtutor
g++ paste vis
g++-3.3 patch vm_stat
g++3 pawd vmmap
gatherheaderdoc pbcopy w
gcc pbpaste wall
gcc-3.3 pcsctest wbinfo
gcc3 pcsctool wc
gcov pdbedit what
gcov-3.3 pdump whatis
gcov3 pear whereis
gdb perl which
gencat perl5.8.1 who
genstrings perlbug whoami
getopt perlcc whois
glibtool perldoc write
glibtoolize perlivp xargs
gm4 pfbtops xcodebuild
gnuattach php xcodeindex
gnuclient php-config xml2-config
gnudoit phpextdist xmlcatalog
gnumake phpize xmllint
gnuserv pic xsubpp
gnutar pic2graph xxd
gocr pico yacc
gocrfilter_en.sed piconv yes
gocrfilter_fr.sed pl ypcat
gocrfilter_nl.sed pl2pm ypmatch
gocrfilter_none.sed plutil ypwhich
gperf pmset yuvdenoise
gprof pod2html yuvscaler
grep pod2latex zcat
grep-changelog pod2man zcmp
grn pod2text zdiff
grodvi pod2usage zforce
groff podchecker zgrep
groffer podselect zip
grog policytool zmore
grolbp post-grohtml znew
grolj4 pr zprint
grops pre-grohtml
grotty printenv
AppleFileServer kextcache quotaoff
BootCacheControl kextstat quotaon
DirectoryService kgmon racoon
KernelEventAgent kprop rarpd
ab kpropd reject
ac krb524d repquota
accept krb5kdc revnetgroup
accton ktutil rmt
amd languagesetup rndc
amq logresolve rndc-confgen
apachectl lookupd rotatelogs
appletalk lpadmin rpc.lockd
apxs lpc rpc.statd
ardbgd lpinfo rpcinfo
arp lpmove rtadvd
asr lsof rtsold
auditreduce lwresd rwhod
autobind mDNSResponder screencapture
automount makedbm scselect
bless mk-amd-map scutil
blued mkextunpack sendmail
bootparamd mkfile setkey
bpwhoami mkslapdconf slapadd
cac_addid mountd slapcat
cac_anchors mtree slapindex
cac_cron named slappasswd
cac_setup named-checkconf slp_reg
catman named-checkzone slpd
chown natd smbd
chroot ndp snmpd
configd netinfod snmptrapd
createhomedir netstat softwareupdate
cron nibindd spray
cupsaddsmb nidomain sshd
cupsd nmbd stdethers
dev_mkdb notifyd stdhosts
diskarbitrationd ntp-genkeys swat
disktool ntpd sysctl
diskutil ntpdate syslogd
distnoted ntpdc system_profiler
dnssec-keygen ntptimeset systemkeychain
dnssec-makekeyset ntptrace tcpdchk
dnssec-signkey nvram tcpdmatch
dnssec-signzone pcscd tcpdump
dsconfigad pdisk tim
dsenableroot periodic timed
edquota pmap_dump timedc
fdisk pmap_set timutil
fixmount portmap traceroute
fsinfo postalias traceroute6
gcc_select postcat trpt
hdik postconf update
hlfsd postdrop vipw
httpd postfix visudo
inetd postfix-watch vpnd
inituser postkick vsdbutil
installer postlock winbindd
ioalloccount postlog wire-test
ioclasscount postmap xinetd
ioreg postqueue ypbind
iostat postsuper ypinit.sh
ip6 pppd yppoll
ip6config praudit yppush
ipconfig pstat ypset
kadmin pwd_mkdb ypxfr
kadmin.local qmasterd zdump
kadmind qmasterqd zic
kdb5_util quot
On a somewhat related note, lots of good services like ssh, ftp, samba, and apache are also included for you.
Thanks for the somewhat exaustive list of your directory. I'm already feeling somewhat at home, haha.
I mainly use bash in Linux, so that's good it's the default in Panther.
Another question, sorry for so many
Mac OS X has a minor addition to the typical *nix permissions system. Apple added what is called an "administrator" group that is half root user, half regular user. The admin group has the ability to sudo a command or su to root, but the actual abilities of the root user are disabled by default. This makes it so applications cannot inadvertently run as root through your user, protects important system files from accidental contamination, etc.
The actual root user is disabled by default in Mac OS X. You have to use an administrator account to enable the root user and give it a password before you can use it. You can, however, sudo anything at any time as an admin user without enabling the root user. Using sudo is preferred by all means over enabling and using the root user.
Sudoing or suing to root via the command line is one thing. That's okay because most users that know how to handle a command line also know the risks of using the root user. Using the root user to login to the GUI, though, is a big no-no. The Finder (the Mac file browser/desktop process) and other apps make changes to hidden files for your user when you use them in the GUI. If you ever use root in the GUI and use these apps, they can modify those hidden files, possibly locking them even, and thereby cause seemingly inexplicable problems later on when you switch to another user.
This used to be a major problem with Mac OS X when it was new and switchers didn't know not to use root. Now, though, it's not as big a deal because there are helpful folks such as myself
Originally posted by Gecks
Another question, sorry for so many
Whoops, in my tirade against using root, I forgot to answer the rest of this.
And, no, it's no trouble. It's my pleasure to help new users make the transition.
To change major system settings such as user accounts, energy saver settings, etc. you have to be an admin user or you must authenticate via a dialog as an admin user. The System Preferences are divided up into sections on a per-user basis and a system-wide basis. Admin users can also set accounts so that users cannot even get access to the advanced system-wide controls.
I'm still looking over Mac, particularly the ibook series, and am still deciding on if I should purchase one. I'm about 90% sure that I will. I don't think I'll have too much trouble converting given my past Unix experiences and seeing how Apple integrates many of the same features.
This thread has been really helpful and informative. Thanks again.
Originally posted by Gecks
Thanks for the welcome Brad... and Paul.
I've been really eyeing the ibook lately, mainly because of the price and the fact that I don't need as much power as the PowerBook offers. I skimmed over the pdf file in Brad's first link and I'm really liking the included compiliers and development libraries that come with OS X. Also the fact of no-registry (can I get an 'amen'?).
AMEN AMEN AMEN AND 1000x AMEN
i am in HS (a senior) and am stuck in a bit of a windows quagmire till june when i dont need to do everything in visual studio 6
i totaly agree mac is way more dev., I.T.(and everything else) friendly and the reg, that thing's a nightmere thhats why windows crashes and needs a reinstall (at least here) every 4 months
and the compilers, i had never even heard of some of those compilers and it is INCLUDED
how doea apple do it? why do the dev tools ship with the OS on mac and cost 1000$s extra on windoze?
Consider joining the "free" ADC Online membership program.
Online Program
ADC home
As for the box itself, bank role dependent, keep it simple, keep back up as a regular practice, then hide it under your pillow...
Have Fun, ken