IT Student - Macbook or Macbook Pro ?
Hi Guys,
I'll be buying a laptop at the end of this week but I am still doubtful on what to choose. The Macbook is cheaper but still performed well next to the Macbook Pro, but it lacks the high res display and x1600 video processor.
Although I use Java as my main programing language, I will of course be using other winxp exclusive suff such as .NET, so I will be using bootcamp/parallels.
I will upgrade the machine with 2gb of ram, just to prevent and performance hickkups.
Or else, is it better if I just let go of Apple and purchase something like the Sony FE or SZ series ?
PS: Games are not a priority, but it would be cool if I had Quake 3 and Guild Wars on the machine.
Thanks in advance (and sorry if there is a similar thread around, I guess I wouldn't have used the search function well).
I'll be buying a laptop at the end of this week but I am still doubtful on what to choose. The Macbook is cheaper but still performed well next to the Macbook Pro, but it lacks the high res display and x1600 video processor.
Although I use Java as my main programing language, I will of course be using other winxp exclusive suff such as .NET, so I will be using bootcamp/parallels.
I will upgrade the machine with 2gb of ram, just to prevent and performance hickkups.
Or else, is it better if I just let go of Apple and purchase something like the Sony FE or SZ series ?
PS: Games are not a priority, but it would be cool if I had Quake 3 and Guild Wars on the machine.
Thanks in advance (and sorry if there is a similar thread around, I guess I wouldn't have used the search function well).
Comments
A student is on the run a lot, and heck if half the time you don't feel like taking your computer becase it's bulky and heavy.
Shouldn't you call it a programing/CS student rather then IT. IT is a catch all phrase but expects somewhat different duties.
Any IT person would be best buddy with their laptop, and smaller is better at that point. (With a good desktop at home of course).
Also Any IT personel should have a macbook(haha), to deal with *gasp* macheads.
in all seriousness, smaller is better if you're on the go a lot. and you will if you're a student.
Kuku - Yes you can practically consider it as CS. I chose CS as my mainstream in my IT course.
Do any of you have any programming experience in mac os x ? How is it really ?
My Mac OS experience goes way back to the version 7, with my Performa 6200 75mhz machine. I haven't used another mac since then hehe.
thanks for the replies, I guess the macbook seems more inviting more than ever now.
Kuku - Yes you can practically consider it as CS. I chose CS as my mainstream in my IT course.
Do any of you have any programming experience in mac os x ? How is it really ?
I do a lot of it, just for myself. I have a degree in CS (they called it Applied Mathematics back then, but it was all CS), with postgraduate work in computer graphics (yes, we did computer graphics back then, display lists, transformation matrices, joystick, lightpen, dials, buttons, the whole thing).
Recently I've done C and objective-C in Xcode, a lot of Applescript Studio, and shell code and Perl. Not really interested in HTML or any web programming except to use something like curl to grab some data off XML sites to use in local apps.
Mac OS X is a lot easier to write for than Classic Mac OS. Practically anything you could want to do is in some Carbon or Cocoa framework, and if that's not enough you have the BSD libraries too. Everything can be called from everything else - you can call a shell script from Applescript and have the shell script call another AppleScript, and the same thing with Perl. Coding in Objective-C with the Cocoa frameworks lets you pretty much automatically set up your GUI without any code, and then bind the widgets (controls) on the GUI to variables in your code so that they automatically track each other.
Xcode lets you code, has built-in everything from automatic code completion to debugger to profiling and optimization tools, and is connected to Interface Builder so all the connecting files are built for you. Xcode automatically makes 32-bit and 64-bit versions of both PowerPC and Intel x86 binaries if you check the boxes, so that a single application bundle will install on any Mac. You can even compile for Mac OS X as far back as Jaguar (for PPC). The latest versions of the gcc compiler include auto-vectorization, so that some constructs written as scalar loops can be compiled as either Altivec (PPC) or SSE3 (Intel) code. All this is done through the Accelerate framework, which automatically generates the correct vector code based on higher-level calls to its routines.
Mac OS X comes with Perl, Ruby, Python, PHP, Ant, Java, C, C++, Fortran, assembler, Objective-C, and Objective-C++. Script Editor handles any Open Scripting Architecture language, which for now is Applescript and Javascript.
Built-in frameworks for Core Data, Core Image, Core Video, PDF, Webkit, Core Audio, and Quicktime are in the OS. Core Animation will be added in Leopard.
Even non-scriptable applications can be controlled by the GUI Scripting methods whereby Applescript can choose menus, push buttons, check checkboxes, and type keystrokes.
My Mac OS experience goes way back to the version 7, with my Performa 6200 75mhz machine. I haven't used another mac since then hehe.
Do any of you have any programming experience in mac os x ? How is it really ?
It's pretty good. It supports everything you could want and you can even do programming for Microsoft proprietary APIs using Parallels.
The university I went to mainly used Linux or OS X. They gave Windows to the freshers because it's not really a good development system. Linux isn't as user-friendly so I went with OS X.
The Macbook will be fine for programming. I personally have reservations about the GPU. I also used to have an ibook and now have a powerbook and the build quality is far better - it doesn't scratch hardly at all.
However, I've heard the Macbooks are built better. I've used one in store and it seemed ok and I will be getting to use one this weekend so I'll test it out a bit.
Given that, you're either in two camps: size or power. I'm in the size camp, so chose (at the time) a 12" Powerbook. I'd still recommend it as the smallest Apple laptop ever made, but you need Windows, so that's out.
One idea is a bottom of the line Macbook, and an iMac - would give you the best of both worlds for little more than a maxed out Macbook Pro.
David
Programming assignments are generally compiled instantaneously and are child's play to run. You'll likely spend most of your time in a text editor while working on assignments.
A faster computer is always more desirable, but not really neccessary for undergraduate CS classes.
Ironically, IT students rarely need much computing power. It's the art and engineering students that can really use as much power as possible.
Programming assignments are generally compiled instantaneously and are child's play to run. You'll likely spend most of your time in a text editor while working on assignments.
A faster computer is always more desirable, but not really neccessary for undergraduate CS classes.
Yeah, my bro's a Comp Sci. professor and I'm always shocked by how little hard drive space he uses. However, when you get into higher level stuff, raw processing power can be important for compiling proofs and such...
Hi Guys,
I'll be buying a laptop at the end of this week but I am still doubtful on what to choose. The Macbook is cheaper but still performed well next to the Macbook Pro, but it lacks the high res display and x1600 video processor.
Although I use Java as my main programing language, I will of course be using other winxp exclusive suff such as .NET, so I will be using bootcamp/parallels.
I will upgrade the machine with 2gb of ram, just to prevent and performance hickkups.
Or else, is it better if I just let go of Apple and purchase something like the Sony FE or SZ series ?
PS: Games are not a priority, but it would be cool if I had Quake 3 and Guild Wars on the machine.
Thanks in advance (and sorry if there is a similar thread around, I guess I wouldn't have used the search function well).
If you're really an IT student, why would you want a mac?
In my 7 years of CS courses, I never had an OS dependent assignment.
Why not?
In my 7 years of CS courses, I never had an OS dependent assignment.
Either you're working on your masters or you like to take your time...
I took a couple CS courses, I had troubles using my mac. Luckily, I had a PC as well.
The problem is, if you use another OS, you have to always be ahead of the class so you can find out how to perform the same operations as your windows cohorts are. I, however, am lazy, so I had to use the same development software as everyone else (which my textbook showed how to use).
So, theoretically, you don't need to use a PC. In reality, you may be working harder to do the same tasks.
Edit: I forgot to mention visual basic .NET ... yeah, no getting around that. It was really fun reinstalling windows THREE TIMES that semester to get past the 30 day trial period on the student addition (!!)
The way I look at it is this. For the rest of your career, you'll need to know how to use various development environments. If you can't switch from one to another with ease, perhaps another line of work is in order. Familiarity with high-level APIs is another story, but for CS course work we're talking about just basic tools of the trade not using an alternate high-level API set.
I took a couple CS courses, I had troubles using my mac. Luckily, I had a PC as well.
I never had any trouble with mine. Even low level programs (assembler sims) were available for the Mac. Plus, you can run Windows on Intel Macs so you can bring up Parallels in a flash and run your Windows development inside Windows. It's also easier to install student editions that way. You can even put Linux in there for whatever reason.
I honestly don't think you'd need more than a Macbook + 1-2GB Ram for the entire degree course. Even in honors, I got along pretty well with 15,000 lines of code compiling on a 700MHz G3 ibook. It was even a 3D application that displayed 60,000+ polys.
I wouldn't recommend getting a desktop at all. There would be no need.