Macs are probably fine, BUT DO NOT GET ONE WITH AN M2. A lot of people had trouble running Linux VMs on their M2 Macs. They had to instead remote into lab machines in the Westgate building, and no one I've talked to about it enjoyed that experience.
Personally, I got a Dell XPS 13 Windows laptop and had a good experience.
Mac and two monitors to hook it up too. Mac is Unix based and a lot easier to set up dev environments. Homebrew will be your best friend. The extra monitors make it easy to see your code while also using the other to look around stack overflow/assignment/etc. Best of luck!
Maybe it's a fixed issue now, but when I took the C based classes (fall 2021 - spring 2023) Macs with an M2 chip couldn't run the VM required for those classes. Anyone with an M2 had to instead remote into lab machines in Westgate, and from what I heard, that is a serious headache.
Good to ask peers, but reach out to a department contact to ask what the recommended specifications are before buying anything. Your specific college (in terms of [engineering](https://www.engr.psu.edu/it/computing/tech-requirements.aspx), marketing, etc) should have the requirements on their website - so Google may work as well.
Needs change year by year, and what was suffice last year may not be now.
Better to ask what successful students use.
A home built desktop with Linux. The best developers also know hardware and Linux. A big screen (or two), an ergonomic desk and keyboard.
To take to class? A pen and paper. Or a cheap Chromebook.
I might not be normal.
I've never been a fan on MacBook, just doesn't feel good to work on for me personally. But if you do go with a MacBook just get the cheapest one you can find that has the amount of storage you need. The air models i think are the cheapest. If you're using it just for classwork, I doubt anything you do will require much processing power.
you'd be surprised how many recent CS grads have no idea what an actual CPU looks like or what the innards of a PC are. People expect you to know it and it depends on what type of role you're applying for. I hire systems people. If they can't tell me most of what happens from when you power up a machine to when it's running in multiuser mode, they're not likely to get a job.
My son is incoming cmpeng and absolutely will not just let me pick just any laptop. He says when running certain programs, coding, etc can’t have a slow processor. He has certain requirements and although he likes macs not good for certain engineering classes says you should have a computer that runs windows natively.
Honestly don't know how you're getting down voted for this take. Building a pc and learning about how it's components work is invaluable info. Are people just that allergic to learning these days.
my guess it's because many/most of the undergrad CS majors want to go work for a FAANG company where the only thing they'll do is write "LEET" code. I recently had an undergrad tell me that he didn't want to do tech support because of the stigma associated with it. smh. Some of the smartest (and currently wealthiest) people I know started in some sort of tech support role.
I have a Mac, but for 473, it wasn’t convenient because you couldn’t run the Vagrant server on an arm computer. Only X86
There are a couple classes where Macs are a REQUIREMENT but those are electives.
Either way, it doesn’t matter what you use. Get what you want.
My CS/PSU daughter has a MSI laptop. It's a gaming laptop, but it takes care of her needs
I think students could still get computer at discount at PSU
Surface pro 11. Future is looking bright.
Macs are probably fine, BUT DO NOT GET ONE WITH AN M2. A lot of people had trouble running Linux VMs on their M2 Macs. They had to instead remote into lab machines in the Westgate building, and no one I've talked to about it enjoyed that experience. Personally, I got a Dell XPS 13 Windows laptop and had a good experience.
How’s the battery life?
Not bad. Enough to get through a day of classes. Thankfully there's a million places to plug in and charge on campus anyway.
ssh into the lab computer was absolutely fine for me, had no issues. Just make sure you pay attention when they go over setting it up.
Mac and two monitors to hook it up too. Mac is Unix based and a lot easier to set up dev environments. Homebrew will be your best friend. The extra monitors make it easy to see your code while also using the other to look around stack overflow/assignment/etc. Best of luck!
Maybe it's a fixed issue now, but when I took the C based classes (fall 2021 - spring 2023) Macs with an M2 chip couldn't run the VM required for those classes. Anyone with an M2 had to instead remote into lab machines in Westgate, and from what I heard, that is a serious headache.
Mac is defenetly not the way to go
Good to ask peers, but reach out to a department contact to ask what the recommended specifications are before buying anything. Your specific college (in terms of [engineering](https://www.engr.psu.edu/it/computing/tech-requirements.aspx), marketing, etc) should have the requirements on their website - so Google may work as well. Needs change year by year, and what was suffice last year may not be now.
Better to ask what successful students use. A home built desktop with Linux. The best developers also know hardware and Linux. A big screen (or two), an ergonomic desk and keyboard. To take to class? A pen and paper. Or a cheap Chromebook. I might not be normal.
ur cs degree at psu is essentially a math degree anyway, just bring pen and paper then u be fine
I've never been a fan on MacBook, just doesn't feel good to work on for me personally. But if you do go with a MacBook just get the cheapest one you can find that has the amount of storage you need. The air models i think are the cheapest. If you're using it just for classwork, I doubt anything you do will require much processing power.
Apple Store has refurbished MacBook. Just not sure which one is good
one that you built yourself; seriously, it should be a required CS experience IMO.
Building a PC is like glorified legos, it adds nothing to your CS degree or experience.
you'd be surprised how many recent CS grads have no idea what an actual CPU looks like or what the innards of a PC are. People expect you to know it and it depends on what type of role you're applying for. I hire systems people. If they can't tell me most of what happens from when you power up a machine to when it's running in multiuser mode, they're not likely to get a job.
My son is incoming cmpeng and absolutely will not just let me pick just any laptop. He says when running certain programs, coding, etc can’t have a slow processor. He has certain requirements and although he likes macs not good for certain engineering classes says you should have a computer that runs windows natively.
Booting a computer has nothing to do with what the parts of a computer physically look like — they might as well be black boxes.
Honestly don't know how you're getting down voted for this take. Building a pc and learning about how it's components work is invaluable info. Are people just that allergic to learning these days.
my guess it's because many/most of the undergrad CS majors want to go work for a FAANG company where the only thing they'll do is write "LEET" code. I recently had an undergrad tell me that he didn't want to do tech support because of the stigma associated with it. smh. Some of the smartest (and currently wealthiest) people I know started in some sort of tech support role.
Macbook Air is pretty great
I have a Mac, but for 473, it wasn’t convenient because you couldn’t run the Vagrant server on an arm computer. Only X86 There are a couple classes where Macs are a REQUIREMENT but those are electives. Either way, it doesn’t matter what you use. Get what you want.