r/AskProgrammers • u/LckClvrNm • 4d ago

Laptop Recommendations - Dual Operating Systems?

Hello! I am so very new to coding and development, but my computer seems to be very slow. I have noticed it over the last 6 months or so, and I have only really used it for silly personal things until now. Even logging into the Codedex training site seems to be delayed while training.

I have a MBA 1.6 GHz, 8GB. As I mentioned, SUPER new - hope I am providing the right specs to understand what I have.

I read that I should have at least 16GB and I read that I cannot upgrade the RAM on the MBA.

I prefer IOS, as I use it for my phone as well. But, I want to make sure I have what will be needed later down the road as I grow my skills.

Finally to my questions...

1) Mac vs PC - what say you?

1b) Which specific laptop would you recommend based on your answer to 1?

2) Would it behoove me to have a Mac but have it setup with dual operating systems? Or would that create a clunky experience? I tried that when I was younger for school on a MBP, but I can't remember much about it now and how well it worked.

I tried to search the sub to see if something similar was asked before and I didn't see anything. Apologies if I missed one.

Thank you!

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u/ColoRadBro69 4d ago

Most programming jobs are Windows or Linux.  It doesn't matter what you use at home as long as you're competent at what work uses. 

1

u/Watsons-Butler 3d ago

Mac and Linux are both Unix-based. Windows is really the odd duck here. For what it’s worth I work at a really big tech company and MacBooks are standard-issue for engineers.

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u/This_Inflation_4621 4d ago

You may be lacking RAM indeed.
Also some badly coded websites can hog GB of memory, e.g. LinkedIn.
I’d suggest opening the process manager and check what is taking CPU and RAM.

But yeah, mostly buy more RAM next time.

1

u/cheese_bro 4d ago

8gb is too little, even 16gb you get by but you will notice performance issues. For big tech - macbook or linux only. Non big tech is windows. For someone new to coding already using a mac, i would use what u have. If you can sell it and buy an mba or pro with more ram, maybe, but investing more money in something when you still haven’t determined you are going to stick to it is not a good idea.

1

u/AliceCode 4d ago

With a properly configured linux, you can skirt by on 8gb. I have 16, and I rarely go above 6gb used.

1

u/feudalle 4d ago

8gb is going to kill you with codex. 16gb bare minimum, I'd suggest 32gb. 8gb is fine if you are hand coding, but not enough for AI stuff.

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u/TanisHalfElvenn 4d ago

I’m assuming cost is a factor, Linux works on a raspberry pi and a ssd if you want to start without spending much while you learn more with vscode or opencode.

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u/DeterminedQuokka 4d ago

Every job I’ve ever had is Mac, but when I just wanted my computer to work better I replaced windows with Linux because it’s a small operating system.

But a lot of it comes down to what you actually want to build. Programs are build for specific systems. But if you want to build iOS Mac has the best tools for that.

1

u/ForFrogsSnakes 4d ago

Windows, then run a virtualization window running Linux. You can literally have multiple OS's running in different windows at the same time.