Would a Imac be useful to someone who is doing computer science?

Westyfield2 · 2 Oct 2010 at 13:06

We've been told that we must have Linux as-well as Windows

.

Is it possible to triboot a Mac? Or can BootCamp only dualboot and one OS will have to be a VM?

theheyes · 2 Oct 2010 at 14:28

Seriously if you're doing Computer Science just get a cheap PC and boot Windows/Linux. Chances are at some point you're going to get a course book with an accompanying IDE thrown at you that will only run on Windows. It's a personal thing but I've never liked the Mac keyboard for programming either.

If you end up getting an iMac it will do the job... but for this course it will offer you no advantage and cost you more in the process.

Randomface74 · 2 Oct 2010 at 14:35

CAPTAINBUMFLUFF said:
Risk them in what way?

You'll get given a task and you won't be able to do it on your mac and nobody will be able to support you. You'll fail and kill yourself.

Best just go with Windows tbh.

tripitaka · 2 Oct 2010 at 19:16

theheyes said:
It's a personal thing but I've never liked the Mac keyboard for programming either.

Got to agree with this. I'm on a Mac Pro at work, and the apple keyboard and mouse are utter garbage.
Not having a hash key is pretty annoying, you have to do alt-3.

QwaF · 2 Oct 2010 at 20:52

theheyes said:
Seriously if you're doing Computer Science just get a cheap PC and boot Windows/Linux. Chances are at some point you're going to get a course book with an accompanying IDE thrown at you that will only run on Windows. It's a personal thing but I've never liked the Mac keyboard for programming either.

If you end up getting an iMac it will do the job... but for this course it will offer you no advantage and cost you more in the process.

That doesn't make sense. Why would that matter?

1) Install Windows on the machine
2) use a different keyboard

Why buy an inferior computer just because you may have to do one or both of those steps? Fair enough, you may not like Mac's, but the poster clearly has the intention of buying one.

Westyfield2 said:
We've been told that we must have Linux as-well as Windows.

Is it possible to triboot a Mac? Or can BootCamp only dualboot and one OS will have to be a VM?

Bootcamp can only dual boot, but it is possible to tripple boot using rEFIT

inflynx · 2 Oct 2010 at 21:13

I have done Computer Science degree both undergrad and postgrad and can't image what on earth you would need a Windows PC for at all. In fact, I recall a lecturer saying he will cut our hands off if we use windows ever again

Mac has everything you need out of the box like Java and C/C++ compiler per-installed, unix shell, etc.
All your department machines will be Linux-based anyway, so don't trust anyone who tells you you will need windows for your studies.

Westyfield2 · 2 Oct 2010 at 22:57

inflynx said:
I have done Computer Science degree both undergrad and postgrad and can't image what on earth you would need a Windows PC for at all. In fact, I recall a lecturer saying he will cut our hands off if we use windows ever again
Mac has everything you need out of the box like Java and C/C++ compiler per-installed, unix shell, etc.
All your department machines will be Linux-based anyway, so don't trust anyone who tells you you will need windows for your studies.

Would dualbooting Mac and Linux be enough then you reckon? Could always stick W7 in a VM if really needed.

Not that I'm hijacking the thread.... but I've just started Software Engineering, which is 90% the same as Computer Science.

inflynx · 2 Oct 2010 at 23:33

Westyfield2 said:
Would dualbooting Mac and Linux be enough then you reckon? Could always stick W7 in a VM if really needed.

I might be forgetting something, but I honestly don't see how Mac would be limiting in any way for the studies. You get all the same mainstream software like Microsoft Office, Adobe programs, compilers, video and image editing, etc. There are packages like SPSS (or whatever it's called now ofter IBM takeover) that don't run on Mac, but none of them are relevant to Computer Science degree.
In any case if you find yourself in desperate need of Windows, you can just go with VM or Bootcamp.

The only issue is games. But if you get 27" iMac and a console, you can just plug the console to the iMac and use it as a screen.

Spyhop · 3 Oct 2010 at 20:00

Beerbaron said:
You should be using linux and unix a fair bit then. Its what i used most on my masters. They only briefly touched macs.

Obligatory "Mac is unix"

---

Outside that, I'd say the pros of choosing a Mac would be the standard ones: nice hardware, nice interface, nice 3rd party apps.

Specific IDEs might often be recommended rather than mandated.

Westyfield2 · 3 Oct 2010 at 22:08

Spyhop said:
Obligatory "Mac is unix"

I got a disapproving glare from the Tutor when I mentioned that

.

MagicBoy · 3 Oct 2010 at 22:10

'Tis true. I didn't realise how true until I went on one of the Apple courses. Lots of fettling in Terminal.

squerble · 4 Oct 2010 at 07:47

I'll echo most other peoples statements and say if you wanna go for it, go for it!

You could BootCamp it for a Mac/Windows dual boot, and then use VMWare/VirtualBox on either of those boots for your Linux work.

They're beautiful machines and you'll appreciate the ease of use of the Mac OS X if you're just doing the basics (mail, internet, music) when chilling out at home.

inflynx · 4 Oct 2010 at 08:09

Westyfield2 said:
I got a disapproving glare from the Tutor when I mentioned that .

Strictly speaking Mac OS is based on Mach kernel, with various bits from Unix incorporated on top of it. That makes Mac OS not exactly Unix-based system, but those are technicalities.

Spyhop · 4 Oct 2010 at 09:32

Nah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_UNIX_Specification

craptakular · 4 Oct 2010 at 17:10

Qdos said:
Started my course last week as well. The majority of the stuff we're doing is on Linux, with a small part later on Windows when we look at Encase and FTK. Certainly all our labs machines are dual boot Linux/Windows.

I'm desperately trying to get a Debian dual boot install on my MBP, having untold troubles though, even the official wiki admits its a bitch to do

easy to do with ubuntu, which is based of debian.