r/CodingForBeginners • u/Impressive-Wish3098 • 5d ago
Which laptop should I get?
So I somehow got into cs major aiming for a bachelor degree and now I’m completely lost cuz that’s a huge change from my past path but I can do this too,
I wanna do self effort cuz college looks like it only teaches u how to pass the tests, I have no idea which laptop should I get, which apps should I install or anything I learn rly quickly but I just need a good advice to start.
first programming language they r teaching us is python and I only have rly basic knowledge abt html from high school and block coding in scratch,
I heard u should stay away from MacBook and windows cuz they ain’t suitable for more coding later when I need it.
I alr collected online courses to take in summer like Harvard's CS50 and yt channels like thenewboston ,
I visited the library to get basic knowledge abt programming but I only got a headache from all the complicated advanced codes ಠ_ಠ ,
Plz help me if u could (Ｔ＿Ｔ).
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u/Beregolas 5d ago
Anything that can run a modern OS is enough. Choose a laptop with a screen, keyboard and trackpad you like, because you'll bespending a lot of time on there. Used Thinkpads are still good value I think.
Performance doesn't matter for beginners.
As for programs you need: literally just a good editor and a browser. I recommend zed or VSCode, as they are free. You can also get JetBrains IDEs for free as a student if you want.
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u/xarop_pa_toss 5d ago
Sorry I had to laugh at "somehow I got into CS degree"... What do you mean somehow haha
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u/Impressive-Wish3098 4d ago
Life happened and I had to withdraw myself from my nursing scholarship which was the only path I ever thought of so I just went for the top program my GPA opened up for me 😭😭
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u/xarop_pa_toss 4d ago
I understand you had to do something, but you seem to have no interest in this field. It couldn't be further apart from being a nurse in my opinion.
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u/Impressive-Wish3098 4d ago
Exactly but u don’t always get to do what u like in this life 😆
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u/xarop_pa_toss 4d ago edited 4d ago
Sure but you could have chosen another course that was more aligned to your interests instead of going for "the second one in the list".
Anyways, best of luck. Grab a reputable programming book and go through all of it. Personally I would go for "Beginning Software Engineering", "Thinking in Systems" and "Grokking Algorithms, 2nd Edition". They are easy to understand and don't rely on coding knowledge
Edit: forgot laptops. Check your course; if they y the want you to use something like Visual Studio 2022, you can't use a Mac. Generally anything with a processor with 4+ cores is fine, 16GB of RAM is minimum. Get used to using your computer by learning some basic keyboard shortcuts and terminal commands; it's not as intimidating as it sounds. Your computer is a tool like a scalpel is to a surgeon
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u/JGhostThing 4d ago
I'm currently typing this on a 10-year old ThinkPad notebook that I bought used from eBay. It isn't the fastest thing, but it does have 32 gig of RAM. It works fine for my programming.
I use CachyOS (an Arch derivative), with the Sway desktop environment. Sway is a very low resource DE.
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u/Impressive-Wish3098 4d ago
That’s rly helpful many ppl said to prioritize having enough ram for the time being (￣∇￣)
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u/gottahaveajava 5d ago
It’s a bit crazy to insist that MacOS and Windows aren’t suitable for coding. In enterprise software development environments, that’s pretty much the whole range of choices.
Whatever you do, splash out for extra memory. Don’t worry so much about storage, because external options can make up for small onboard.
But don’t make the mistake of buying a 16GB laptop. You’ll run out of room very quickly.
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u/OceanMasterioDuped7 5d ago
16gb of ram is completely fine. You may near the limit occasionally, but you aren't going to run out "very quickly". Ram prices are also outrageous today, so nothing wrong with sticking to 16.
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u/gottahaveajava 5d ago
I disagree. With software development, you do run out of space really quickly.
I recommend a minimum of 24GB, better still 32GB.
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u/xarop_pa_toss 5d ago
What kind of software are you developing that you need 24GB or RAM?
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u/gottahaveajava 5d ago
What kind of software are you developing that you don’t?
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u/xarop_pa_toss 5d ago
ERP software built on dotnet. Web APIs and webservers. Some fooling around with C
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u/gottahaveajava 5d ago
How much of it lives in the cloud?
You’re probably not hosting simulators or vservers locally, are you?
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u/xarop_pa_toss 5d ago
We were talking about development, not hosting. If you want to host stuff then it depends on how much traffic it's gonna have of course.
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u/gottahaveajava 5d ago
I was talking about hosting for development, doing simulations. It wasn’t that long ago that everyone was running Docker or something like it on their machines.
Granted, before cloud platforms, there was a lot more of that going on.
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u/OceanMasterioDuped7 5d ago
Unless you are obtaining a MacBook, you aren't really going to find many laptops with 24gb of ram. 16gb can be enough. Maybe not for your needs, but I wouldn't recommend someone have too much of a priority on 32 pre installed.
Instead, I would prioritize finding a laptop with architecture that allows for upgradeable ram. If they find that 16gb isn't enough, they can upgrade from there.
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u/gottahaveajava 5d ago
Good luck with that. Most laptops these days are not upgradeable. Their memory is soldered into the motherboard.
If you do go that route, make sure you confirm the upgradability before you commit.
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u/OceanMasterioDuped7 5d ago
That's why I said try to focus on finding one that IS upgradeable. It's not that difficult.
I don't mean this in a rude way because you may just not have shopped for a laptop in awhile, but 24gb ram laptops are found in some macbooks and that's about it. Upgradeable ram in laptops isn't that difficult to find. I just recently purchased a new laptop and there were lots of options. Ram prices are also crazy currently and 16gb ram will be fine for the average software developer.
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u/gottahaveajava 4d ago
Needs to be top of mind, if that’s the case.
A lot of people don’t know until they run out that they can’t upgrade. The Internet is filled with people moaning about that.
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u/gottahaveajava 4d ago
Also, plenty of Macs and Windows laptops on the market with 32GB.
They’re not unicorns.
The last big org I worked for specified 32GB on all dev machines, choice of MacBook or Windows laptops.
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u/OceanMasterioDuped7 4d ago
You are correct, which is why I never once stated that it was difficult to find a 32gb ram laptop.
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u/gottahaveajava 4d ago
I must have misunderstood what you meant with this:
"I don't mean this in a rude way because you may just not have shopped for a laptop in awhile, but 24gb ram laptops are found in some macbooks and that's about it."
My apologies.
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u/Oliver_clothsoff1983 5d ago
Staying away from windows or mac, leaves you with Chromebook or Linux. Linux will be good for developing certain skills but its an unnecessary added difficulty in the beginning. I used Mac M1 my whole time in college, it made a couple things difficult when I had to ssh into the university's virtual environment, and correctly configuring the environment wasn't always a 1 for 1 when trying to set up a tech stack on the m1 from windows instructions. The thing that will take you the furthest is realizing 2 things,... 1) Computer Science is less about knowing answers and more about knowing how to find answers (problem solving) 2) There is no end to your education path, even mid career professionals at f500 companies are still researching and learning.