should i get a mac?

need some help here
just started learning programming (cs50x)
and my cousin who programs for the weather channel insists that i get a mbp,for programming

>MUH GAMES

is osx better for programming?


also i heard bootcamp drains battery and bad performance

this would be my main computer

 

Not for what you'd be studying. For less money you can get a Windows machine that's just as capable hardware wise and more. If you want to play games on something that's reasonably portable, check out a Clevo/Sager system.

 

AFIK for programming, especially, web, databases ( sql, db, access etc ) it makes no difference as long as the tools exist on the chosen platform. ( ios apps are Mac only, Vbasic etc is windows only )

gaming is certantly heavy advantage windows still

and yes bootcamp kills battery and the drivers could certainly use improvement

if performance/gaming is more a must I have to agree with Saturn that the Sager/Clevos are a great option. if bat life, options , multiple monitors, and support are more, the business class units from the big 3 ( thinkpad x & W Dell Precision, Hp Probook/Elitebook, etc )

if you post over in WNSIB and fill out the form we can all help you better

 

The MBP is defnitely NOT better for programming overall.
It might be better for a certain company, a certain class, or for certain people, but as a general rule in the real world there is no real advantage to a MBP other than allowing the use of OSX.

Working for a web development company, there is absolutely NO real difference in production overall between our mac and pc developers (web, or back-end programming) per person average. The only difference in the real world is hardware costs, OS licensing, and software licensing.

As most companies do not have appropriately trained Mac IT staff, and are unwilling to purchase Apple hardware at 2-3x the cost of PC hardware, you will find very few Apple-equipped companies.

Your class requirements are dependant on your instructor and available software. Many programming classes you only really type code in an editor, and then move the code to a compiler on a network machine. For such a class, most laptops are massive overkill and anything will do.

If your class or professor absolutely requires a mac, or if you profer a mac your choice is clear.
If not, I believe a college student's budget will be best served with a PC.

 

Are you also going to be working at the weather channel? You can ask your cousin why they insist on a mbp. Maybe they have specific environments and a Mac would be ideal.


My programming involves Oracle development with SQL scripts & PL/SQL procedures, Java, Unix shell scripting. We have an IBM Maximo 7.5 application that runs on windows servers, the Oracle databases are on unix/linux servers, we have Oracle appliciations running on HPUX and linux servers. For shell scripting I use ssh to a unix/linux command line. Nice thing is that I can do that ssh from my MBP's terminal command line. I also develop and test some of my scripts locally from my Macs command line without connecting to their servers. For java development I use Eclipse via windows. TortoiseSVN is used via Windows explorer for code repository/revisions. For Oracle SQL & stored procedure, etc I again use windows since my favorite database client tools are only available for Windows (TOAD, PL/SQL Developer, etc)... although I could use Oracles SQLDeveloper which can run on just about any OS since it runs in a jvm (but uses a ton of heap size so I don't prefer it).

Most of the time I simply remote to a windows workstation or citrix machine from my home den/office. I can do that from my Mac in OS X via a Juniper VPN, Juniper's Secure Application Manager, and MS RDP. Or I can do that same thing from within Windows bootcamp or windows VM from within OS X. But if it is unix shell scripts or anything that I need to do from the shell prompt, I use ssh/sftp directly to the server. Some businesses require me to use a certain VPN client tool that is only available for windows, so in those cases I have to boot into windows. Or they set me up with an exchange email so I created small windows VMs to check those exchange email accounts... but even then I can still get my exchange emails using outlook web mail while still in OS X.

So yeah, I prefer OS X but I use whichever OS I need to depending on what development I'm doing. Fortunately a MBP suffices for all my circumstances. I do have other DELL laptops though, but I alway gravitate to using my MBP just because it is lighter and doesn't have underneath fans so I can actually use it as a laptop instead of as a desktop replacement. And it doesn't take a ton of horsepower if I'm just remote connecting into another workstation or server... those remote computers do all the heavy lifting while I just enjoy the Mac form factor. It's almost as though I'm using my MBP as a dumb terminal, which is not far from the truth. ha