Macbook Air vs Macbook Pro

[krashlev]

I am a senior in high school and I'm wondering which laptop to buy. I'm planning to major in computer science in college and am dorming in another city. I game a ton but plan to do less in college.

 

[carnageX]

Is there a specific reason you're wanting to go with a Mac?

Depending on what language you're going to be programming in, your development environment may not be compatible with OSX (i.e. if you're planning on doing .NET Development). You'll most likely end up running Windows either in Bootcamp or via Parallels (this is what the couple people I knew ended up doing that ran Macs in my CS classes).

You can get a much better Windows-based laptop for the same price (or less) than a Mac.

 

[krashlev]

I am mostly going with a Mac for a new experience because I've been using windows machines all my life haha. I'll have a desktop when I move out of the dorms though, which is windows.

 

[carnageX]

Then why not just go straight up Linux?

Like I said, depending on what your school's primary language(s) will be, that would depend on what environment you'd want to run.

 

[krashlev]

Linux isn't really my cup of tea.

 

[carnageX]

Linux isn't really my cup of tea.

You know OSX is BSD-based right?

 

[MillField]

I got a MacBook Pro just before starting my final year of my CS degree. It was such a huge improvement in every way over the two Windows based laptops I had been using before that. Sure, they're expensive and can't run games for ****, but I find that most software is developed and designed so much better on OS X. Whats more, I had a lot less headaches than some of my friends when setting up different environments for different classes. But I'm an Apple head so maybe I'm a bit biased!

The MacBook Air should be fine for your college needs. I just wanted some big storage, that was my main reason for picking the Pro. Check out the refurbished section of the Apple website for some good deals. Also your college might provide you with some sort of discount?

Either way, enjoy your Mac.

 

[carnageX]

I got a MacBook Pro just before starting my final year of my CS degree. It was such a huge improvement in every way over the two Windows based laptops I had been using before that. Sure, they're expensive and can't run games for ****, but I find that most software is developed and designed so much better on OS X. Whats more, I had a lot less headaches than some of my friends when setting up different environments for different classes. But I'm an Apple head so maybe I'm a bit biased!

I never had any issues setting up any of the environments I used for my development on my Windows machines. Went through 3 laptops (upgrading) until I got up to my current MSI.

Mainly did C++ (used Code::Blocks) and then switched to C# so Visual Studio was the option there. For a while I dual-booted Ubuntu and Windows and used Code::Blocks inside Ubuntu since we had to compile on our Linux server anyway (were some discrepancies between the Windows Mingw G++ compiler and the Linux one a couple times).

If you get cheap laptops, don't expect good performance (sounded like that's what you were using).

 

[PP Mguire]

Sounds like incompetent noobs to me, but hey what do I know.

Good friend of mine just started going to college for this **** and all of his professors recommend Windows based laptops if you're a newfriend. I don't do this type of work so I can't say either way. Just figured I'd put that out there.

 

[krashlev]

Thanks guys but not considering the CS degree which one would be more useful? Is the additional price worth a macbook pro, rather than a macbook air?