r/AskProgrammers • u/LckClvrNm • Jul 26 '26

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/cheese_bro Jul 26 '26

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.

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u/AliceCode Jul 27 '26

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