Tip for choosing the right laptop for computer science majors

[studenttech]

As a former CSE major I had some thoughts on what makes the best laptop (assuming you choose that over a desktop, which you should) for CSE majors:

http://www.studenttechguide.com/2011/09/best-laptop-for-computer-science-engineering-majors/

[ultimatebuster]

Yeah, I have a Thinkpad T420. and it's awesome, especially with the red pointing.. thing.

Also they failed to mention a POSIX compliance system, some laptop with proprietary hardware might have trouble running them (T420 took about a day to setup to run ubuntu 11.04 with all features working)

Personally I think the pointing stick is important because it saves you time working in an Graphical editor. Unless you vim all the way (and emac is just stupid >.>)

[studenttech]

You can buy a ThinkPad with good old DOS (well, in the U.S. at least) for around $600 so that also makes it appealing for CS majors. It's not Linux but you're not paying for Windows either. ThinkPad user myself, agree, love the track point / pointing stick / red nub / whatever your favorite term for that may be

[andrew.]

I'm in computer engineering at UW, and I find that my MacBook Pro 13" is perfect for what I need. It's small, light, reliable, has great battery life, and has the power I need. Also, it has a lot of the tools I need built in like ssh. If there is something that absolutely needs Windows, I just reboot into Windows (UW gives us a free Windows 7 license so I installed that).

[Cool.Breeze]

andrew. @ Wed Sep 14, 2011 4:00 pm wrote:

I'm in computer engineering at UW, and I find that my MacBook Pro 13" is perfect for what I need. It's small, light, reliable, has great battery life, and has the power I need. Also, it has a lot of the tools I need built in like ssh. If there is something that absolutely needs Windows, I just reboot into Windows (UW gives us a free Windows 7 license so I installed that).

! I did not know UW students could get free Windows 7 and was going to buy a copy with a new computer I'm buying soon. You just saved me $120!

[crossley7]

I'm still in high school, but program a lot and recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 14r. IT is the best thing I have ever seen. For around half the price of an air it is still light and portable but significantly more powerful. And all the other specs i've tested so far are great. Keyboard, audio, programming performance, battery life etc.

[ultimatebuster]

Keyboard is important in CS. I suggest you get a laptop with an excellent keyboard (thinkpad)