Hey everyone, I am starting as a freshman in fall 2018 at Cornell College of Engineering and was wondering which OS would be better? I have heard several arguments in favor of both. Currently using an older Macbook Pro 15" but I am comfortable with both operating systems. For college I was considering either a Macbook pro 13" with the touchbar for extra portability and battery life or an XPS 15 or a surface product for windows.
More people use Mac over Windows here but you’re fine with either as long as you don’t show up with Linux. Unless you’re a CS god or in a project team.
CS major (not Cornell) here. Avoid the touchbar like the plague. It’s unneeded, buggy, and actually seems to drain battery faster for many in the CS community. Generally, I’m a Mac person and for CS it’s a huge difference over Windows, while engineering tends to be more agnostic.
So if I were to avoid the touchbar would you recommend a Windows PC? Like the surface or Dell’s XPS line-up? What made you choose Mac over Windows?
There is utility in both. I sent one if my kids off with his existing macbook from HS, and bought a new surfacebook sonhe can take handwritten notes, and have a windows device if needed.
Other kid also got a lower end surfacebook to take handwritten notes, but his main desktop PC is windows.
Leaves high end PC in dorm room, and installed cygwin to have unix like functionality on windows.
Both kids carry surfacebook to class, code/homework on their respective mac or cygwin/windows.
Two different schools (both CS) Cornell and another major engineering school.
Not as sure about Cornell, but at other eng college son said most profs use Mac.
Personally I think Mac is best as a CS major, in real world post graduation people use Linux and Windows.
So I suggest bring existing mac, get a surfacebook/pen.
You can always replace the mac later if you find you use it more and need more memory/speed.
For CS, UNIX is king, which is Mac or Linux. Windows is notoriously a nightmare to use for CS. The OS for Mac tend to be more generally well-liked as well, and there’s more reliability in general. You can get a Mac without a touchbar, even the new ones. I’m currently typing from one. That’s my recommendation if you have the budget to spend on it. It covers all your bases - you can even dual boot Windows if absolutely needed.
For CS, professionally I have used nothing but Macs, as is the same with most of my friends. Engineering I think professionally leans more Linux/Windows.
If you decide not to go Mac, I’m not as familiar with models and would default to others with more experience. My last Windows computer was decommissioned in 2013, though I still interact with Windows. Generally, any machine you get, make sure it’s 8-16GB of RAM and a good processor.