Any UT Austin Computer Science Majors out there? I have a laptop question for you.

[DietDrThunder]

My kid will be attending UT Austin next fall as a Computer Science major. I've done many a web search but I can't find an answer. What type of laptop is primarily used by CS majors at UT? Mac Book Pro? Windows with a Linux VM? A Linux only Laptop? I'm kind of out of touch with what is used in college because when I got my CS degree, we were either doing assembly language or fortran using punch cards on mainframes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tom

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Get them a MBP - not because it will work, but because it will be necessary when they inevitable go, "Dad, I want to be an art major!"

But seriously, where I'm at, it's all Visual Studio for the lower-level classes, Linux and stuff for the higher-level. Macs can run Linux and Windows just fine, so if you like the hardware, or want the flexibility to also get into XCode and iOS app development early, that's an option. Otherwise, any old Windows lappy will work.

Also, computer science curriculum usually doesn't involve a lot of super-heavy computing. So feel free to get the mid-level model and not the high-end one.

 

[Headfoot]

MBA are nice and you dont pay as much of the apple tax on that. It leaves the door open for iOS development while he can dual boot to windows and run linux in a VM for all other development tasks

 

[ninaholic37]

The course should outline which laptops are recommended. They might even have a computer store in the university that sells a few of the recommended models.

 

[DietDrThunder]

The course should outline which laptops are recommended. They might even have a computer store in the university that sells a few of the recommended models.

Here is what UT Austin Says:

We get this question often from prospective students, so we asked our ambassadors, experienced CS students to answer:

"As far as computers go, every CS student has access to the computers in the 3rd floor and basement labs of the Bill and Melinda Gates Computer Science Complex for their programming and general purpose needs as well as the computers around campus in the libraries and other computer labs for general purpose use. The computer labs in Gates are open 24/7 for student use. Therefore, the type of computer that you should buy in preparation for coming to college should be one that you are comfortable using. There is no departmental preference between Windows, Mac, Unix, or Chrome operating systems. In terms of hardware, few classes will actually stress your computer to the point where processors overheating becomes an issue and for CS classes that require a lot of computing power for simulations or graphics, most students use the computers in the labs. Most computer science classes do not allow students to take notes on laptops during class, so laptop use in class would likely only be for non-CS courses and would probably consist of note taking. [For example, a student recalls using a laptop with a processor that was 2 or 3 steps behind the i3 as well as one with an i3 processor and had no laptop related problems.]

While having a laptop in college is not a requirement, I definitely recommend that students bring one just in case they need to use a computer while in their dorm room. As for the type of computer, the best, short answer that I can give is for you to bring the laptop that you are most comfortable using, because you won't have to do anything on your personal computer remotely that you wouldn't be able to do on a lab computer (besides take notes in class). It is definitely common for students to have basic laptops for general purpose use. For example, a student might primarily use their laptop for note taking and occasionally remote accessing to one of the CS machines at UT to do programming. If a student requires the use of a certain software or needs to be on the network (and etc), they typically choose to work in the labs. There are students who have more advanced laptops and even desktops, but it's definitely not required and most people use these more advanced systems for personal use such as gaming, not because it's a requirement of the major. This is why we suggest prospective students to buy whatever laptop they feel comfortable working on and has the capability to do what they would want to do outside of class."

I also call the UT Campus store and got the response of "Yes we sell laptops".

Not very much help.

I just want my kid to be setup with the right laptop with the right configurations so I can find the best deal now and not wait for the last minute and buy the wrong one.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I just want my kid to be setup with the right laptop with the right configurations so I can find the best deal now and not wait for the last minute and buy the wrong one.

Sounds like the "right" laptop and "right" configuration is "whatever you're comfortable using." The software happens after the fact. Probably different program(s) for each class.

So find a good deal on something you like and relax.

 

[unokitty]

My kid will be attending UT Austin next fall as a Computer Science major. I've done many a web search but I can't find an answer. What type of laptop is primarily used by CS majors at UT? Mac Book Pro? Windows with a Linux VM? A Linux only Laptop? I'm kind of out of touch with what is used in college because when I got my CS degree, we were either doing assembly language or fortran using punch cards on mainframes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tom

Just a thought. But you might consider sending him to Austin with whatever he is using now.

And plan to buy him a new laptop after his first few weeks of classes...

Uno

 

[sm625]

You can also buy a used 2012 or even a 2011 era macbook pro and do just fine. There is basically nothing they cant do that a 2015 model can, except perhaps last a bit longer.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

My kid will be attending UT Austin next fall as a Computer Science major. I've done many a web search but I can't find an answer. What type of laptop is primarily used by CS majors at UT? Mac Book Pro? Windows with a Linux VM? A Linux only Laptop? I'm kind of out of touch with what is used in college because when I got my CS degree, we were either doing assembly language or fortran using punch cards on mainframes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tom

Not a current student, but a pretty recent grad (hook 'em).

Don't overthink this - you can get by with pretty much any laptop. Technically you can get by without your own computer and just use the lab ones - the lab is open 24/7 most of the time, and you won't have any config issues running any class projects on those machines.

The first two courses (which are part of 3 that you need to pass in order to advance to upper division status) are solely in Java. The two upper-division and required courses after that are primarily in C. For everything else, it's more or less professor- and/or project-dependent, but there isn't anything that absolutely requires the use of one environment over the other. Except for possibly the iOS course, but you can run an OSX VM or make a Hackintosh to get around that. The OS class (CS439) doesn't explicitly require you to use e.g. Ubuntu over Windows, but the main project involves a pretty specific set of criteria (like a specific version of GCC) such that it's easiest to just use the lab machines.

Each computer station in the public labs has two computers - a Ubuntu box and a Windows box. I only ever used the Windows box to print stuff and did everything else on the Ubuntu box. Most people I know never touched the Windows boxes.

The Ubuntu boxes had a Xeon E3-1245 v2 (Ivy Bridge, quad-core), 8GB RAM, no dGPU, 500GB HDD. Forgot what the Windows boxes had, but I'm pretty sure they were repurposed C2D machines. Plus a Dell U2412M at each station. Each student has 2GB dedicated storage on the lab machines.

As for actual laptops used... Macs were probably the most common, there were a fair amount of Thinkpads, and the rest were just typical computers you can get off a shelf at Best Buy.

Sorry if this is jumbled, in a hurry right now. Feel free to PM me for more info.

<- Used a Thinkpad throughout, in addition to a 2500k/3930k rig. Ran Vista/W7 on all of them. All were overkill for the projects I had to do.

 

[utfrodo54]

15 years ago i had some awful athlon based HP. Everything was java back then.

hook 'em

 

[Blue_Max]

I would ask the school or even the class instructor(s) what is recommended. I'd hate to pay into the wrong Apple vs. Windows platform.

Heck, some places (where the courses REQUIRE it) will even include the preferred laptop as part of the tuition.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Heck, some places (where the courses REQUIRE it) will even include the preferred laptop as part of the tuition.

Oddly, I've usually seen that in Business or Law curricula, not CS. "You WILL run WordPerfect" or "You WILL turn in a 100 slide PowerPoint Deck every Friday." Stuff like that.

 

[holden j caufield]

When I was in school any laptop with a decent resolution for visual studio was fine. Now you can run a nice high resolution thinkpad with a linux, ios vm, android vm. I've done all that on a 3-4 year old thinkpad and they make great replaceable batteries, I've run mine with an extended battery, a battery in the ultra DVD slot and a battery in the dock connector. For school I think for CS a good high res screen that allows for many panes, very good battery life, replaceable battery are very high on the list. Also a good strong DC jack. The reason I love the old thinkpads with a good warranty is they'll come to you and fix stuff, plus they used to have DC jacks that attached to the mobo and wasn't soldered on. Also their snapshot backup program was ok for the people too lazy to backup.

Every year or semester there was always someone who didn't save their work, had 1 copy of all their work on 1 laptop. Sure enough the mobo would die, the hard drive would die, the dc jack would wiggle loose, something would happen. It was sad seeing it but it happened every semester near finals.