What computer should a physics major choose for their studies?

In summary, when deciding between a PC or a Mac for a physics major, it is important to consider the cost and availability of specific programs, such as Microsoft Word and Excel. Some useful programs for physics majors include LaTeX, C/C++ compilers, Mathematica, Gnuplot, and Photoshop Elements. It is also possible to get free or discounted software through a university's licensing agreement. Some people suggest waiting until the second year to purchase a laptop, while others recommend getting a PC for access to programs like MATLAB. Ultimately, the decision should be based on individual needs and preferences.
  • #1
jderm
15
0
I'm starting my freshman year as a physics major this fall and was wondering if a pc or a mac would suit my needs. also, what programs besides ms word and excel would i need?
 
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  • #2
edit*

I'm starting my freshman year as a physics major this fall and was wondering which would suit my needs better, a mac or a pc?
 
  • #3
For most of your needs a PC or Mac doesn't matter. But in most cases a PC is cheaper.
You might also want to install some programs which only exist for PC (Windows).
 
  • #4
I got through physics with just a calculator, and actually did my freshman year with a sliderule.

Probably by the junior year, one would need a decent computer.

Word and Excel will probably meet one's needs. Beyond that, a LaTeX program might be useful, as well as a C/C++ complier, and perhaps Mathematica.

Gnuplot is a useful graphics program. Excel's graphics leave a lot to be desired.

Photoshop Elements is a nice basic and relatively inexpensive graphics program.

There are utilities like Adobe Acrobat Reader (free) and WinZip, that are useful.

For text editing, I prefer TextPad, which is a powerful text editor. There is a free version, but it's limited. For full functionality, one has to buy a license.
 
  • #5
I'd suggest MatLab as another choice for mathematical software. It's graphing capability is really good and it isn't as had to learn as Gnuplot.

If you don't want to pay for Office, there an bunch of freebies out there (openoffice.org) that have almost the same functionality as MS Office. Your school will most likely have a licensing agreement and you can get MS for next to nothing along with compilers.

Other than that, I agree with Astronuc.

You might want to stop into your new school a week or two early and maybe you could get a laptop thru them with all the software you might use for the next couple of years.
 
  • #6
jderm said:
I'm starting my freshman year as a physics major this fall and was wondering if a pc or a mac would suit my needs. also, what programs besides ms word and excel would i need?

My advice, which may be controversial, is don't. Don't buy a computer when you go to college. Start your first year without one, put the money towards some decent food, and study hard. Learn how to attack problems and develop ideas with a pen and paper. You'd be amazed at the amount of students I see who attempt to do everything on their laptop, even when it's obvious that this is a hideously inefficient -- not to mention idiotic -- way of doing things.

If you find that you need one in your second year, get it then.

If you do get one for your first year, don't be surprised if you find that you're spending a stupid amount of time on Facebook et al. that could be better spent studying.
 
  • #7
Im starting my freshman year in august and will also be majoring in physics. I haven't bought my laptop for school yet but I am leaning toward the macbook pro because it comes equipped with a state of the art graphics card, that will come in handy when looking at 3d graphs, and also a lot of other programs that will be useful.

The downside is that it starts off at $1999, you have to buy MS office separately (an additional 200 bucks), and it cost about $300 to insure.

Shoehorn, if ppl take your advice and don't get a laptop their freshman year how will they conveniently write papers, check their email, and do research? I know every school has a library but its a lot easier to just pick up your laptop and instantly do anyone of those things.
 
  • #8
chi2cali08 said:
Shoehorn, if ppl take your advice and don't get a laptop their freshman year how will they conveniently write papers, check their email, and do research?

It's madness to think that you need a computer for your first year. Undoubtedly it would be convenient, but there's no way on Earth that it should be necessary. Any decent university should have enough available public access computers for a first year student's needs. If your university doesn't provide this facility, go to another university; the one you're in is obviously poor and/or run by idiots.

Regardless, a MacBook Pro is overkill. I can't think of a single instance where a first-year student would need a "state of the art graphics card" for "looking at 3d graphs." (This, of course, ignores the fact that the MacBook Pro's graphics card is so far from being state-of-the-art as to make even the suggestion ludicrous. Apparently Apple's ad-men are better at flogging their wares to an edacious public than I believed...) Indeed, I can't think of a single reason why any undergraduate physics student at my university, first year or not, would find such a thing useful for their course work, much less find it necessary.

chi2cali08 said:
I know every school has a library but its a lot easier to just pick up your laptop and instantly do anyone of those things.

It's also a lot easier to waste valuable time pissing about on the internet. Thankfully we're rather immune to the "every student needs a laptop" nonsense on this side of the pond, but I'm still amazed by how much time is wasted by the -- mercifully few -- students who start university equipped with a laptop.

Almost as amazed as I am by the inevitable handful of cretins who attempt to take notes in a certain well-known introductory quantum theory class using Microsoft Word and -- gasp -- Equation Editor.
 
  • #9
Get a PC so you can use MATLAB. I have found it the single most useful computer program of my BSc, Hon, and now MSc in Physics. You could get a mac book pro and learn to use wine or some other emulator but it takes a bit of time methinks.
 
  • #10
chi2cali08 said:
Im starting my freshman year in august and will also be majoring in physics. I haven't bought my laptop for school yet but I am leaning toward the macbook pro because it comes equipped with a state of the art graphics card, that will come in handy when looking at 3d graphs, and also a lot of other programs that will be useful.

The downside is that it starts off at $1999, you have to buy MS office separately (an additional 200 bucks), and it cost about $300 to insure.

Shoehorn, if ppl take your advice and don't get a laptop their freshman year how will they conveniently write papers, check their email, and do research? I know every school has a library but its a lot easier to just pick up your laptop and instantly do anyone of those things.

The Macbook pro actually has a pretty weak graphics card; it just happens that laptops simply cannot house any serious graphics hardware and the MacBook Pros tend to have the best Nvidia integrated graphics available for notebooks, but they pale in comparison to what is available for desktop or workstation computer.

Also, there are many notebooks out there with the same graphics and processor as the Macbook pros, for less than half the money if you find a good deal.

Anyway, here is my advice, assuming you are going to have only a laptop and nothing else:

1) Get a fast laptop with a lot of RAM and a good graphics card. If you do that, you will not need to buy another laptop for a good long while, five or six years if you are lucky and take care of it (if you want more computing power, you can always buy/build a desktop).

2) Get external accessories. A docking station is not necessary, but convenient. You should get, if you can afford it, the largest monitor that your laptop will run reliably, as well as an ergonomic keyboard and mouse. Then, when you are working at home, you can put the laptop safely away, and at worse, you or your roomate/girlfriend will spill their beer on your $50 keyboard, not your $2000 computer.

3) Buy only the software you need. As a student, you will need to write a lot. You should buy an office suite. MS Office is the standard, though I prefer WordPerfect over Word. Either way, you should probably hold off on buying a suite until you get to school, as you can probably obtain a sharp discount.

4) Buy an antivirus. It may be that your school provides one for free. Unless you are running MacOS/Linux you need one, badly, especially if you let other people use your computer.

5) Buy an external hard drive. Use it to back up your important files. As a student, your work, your intellectual output is important. You never know when a hard drive will spin up for the last time, but Murphy's law says it will usually be a few minutes after you finish that 20 page essay that you spent all week on.



As for physics software, if you are really interested in learning it, the suggestions of Mathematica and Matlab, which you can buy for a steep student discount, are not bad. However, if you do buy this, it should only be for your own education and gratification. If you use any special commercial software in your classes, it will be available in the computer labs, and until you know what software might be useful to buy for your own computer, it could be a big waste of your limited money. You could spend $150 on the student version of Mathematica and discover that your math and physics departments use Maple. A C++ compiler is great, if you want to study computer programming on your own, otherwise just let the lab assistant hook you up with an appropriate compiler if and when you take a computer programming class.

There is a lot of other useful software and computer accessories, like reference managers, printers, scanners, and cd rom versions of the OED. If you feel you need them, and you have the money, they can all contribute to your ability to work; however, you should buy them as the need arises, rather than before you really understand what would be most useful to you.
 
  • #11
shoehorn said:
Almost as amazed as I am by the inevitable handful of cretins who attempt to take notes in a certain well-known introductory quantum theory class using Microsoft Word and -- gasp -- Equation Editor.


Haven't they heard of a tablet PC? :rolleyes:
 
  • #12
Interesting. Physics students at Warsaw University are required to use *nix type system for most of the time. At least all projects for computer classes are to be done under Linux. Doesn't mean there are no Windows based systems at library, but that's completely different story.
 
  • #13
vociferous said:
Haven't they heard of a tablet PC? :rolleyes:

Unfortunately, probably not...
It's been a frustration of TabletPC owners and enthusiasts that the TabletPC remains a small niche market. Here is a recent flurry of discussion from http://gottabemobile.com:
http://www.gottabemobile.com/Long+Live+The+Tablet+PC.aspx
http://www.gottabemobile.com/Tablet+Isnt+Dead+We+Just+Need+A+Leader.aspx
http://www.gottabemobile.com/Active+Ink+Tablet+PC+Sales+Expectations+Never+Realized.aspx
http://www.gottabemobile.com/The+Tablet+PC+Has+Not+Failed+Developers+Have.aspx
http://www.gottabemobile.com/A+Former+Tablet+PC+Team+Member+Speaks+Out+On+Microsoft+And+Tablet+PC+Marketing.aspx

Personally, I find it extremely useful in an academic setting... especially when I am working on a calculation or delivering lectures in the classroom.

(Here's an entry on the TabletPC I wrote for the PF-blog in 2006... which has now been migrated into my user blog: https://www.physicsforums.com/blog.php/2006/05/20/tabletpcs-for-science-and-science-teaching/blog.php?b=103 [Broken] .) I am shopping around for my next TabletPC now. If Apple comes out with a tablet (as is often rumored), I might consider a Mac.

(By the way, on Windows, I use Cygwin for my unix needs.)
 
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  • #14
robphy said:
Unfortunately, probably not...
It's been a frustration of TabletPC owners and enthusiasts that the TabletPC remains a small niche market. Here is a recent flurry of discussion from http://gottabemobile.com:
http://www.gottabemobile.com/Long+Live+The+Tablet+PC.aspx
http://www.gottabemobile.com/Tablet+Isnt+Dead+We+Just+Need+A+Leader.aspx
http://www.gottabemobile.com/Active+Ink+Tablet+PC+Sales+Expectations+Never+Realized.aspx
http://www.gottabemobile.com/The+Tablet+PC+Has+Not+Failed+Developers+Have.aspx
http://www.gottabemobile.com/A+Former+Tablet+PC+Team+Member+Speaks+Out+On+Microsoft+And+Tablet+PC+Marketing.aspx

Personally, I find it extremely useful in an academic setting... especially when I am working on a calculation or delivering lectures in the classroom.

(Here's an entry on the TabletPC I wrote for the PF-blog in 2006... which has now been migrated into my user blog: https://www.physicsforums.com/blog.php/2006/05/20/tabletpcs-for-science-and-science-teaching/blog.php?b=103 [Broken] .) I am shopping around for my next TabletPC now. If Apple comes out with a tablet (as is often rumored), I might consider a Mac.

(By the way, on Windows, I use Cygwin for my unix needs.)

I got one from work about four months ago, and it is really useful. It is a couple years old, but in good condition, and I payed only $150 for it. It is a shame that new ones run about $2000 for most models, and that they are such a small market.

BTW, if you have XP Pro or Vista Enterprise/Ultimate, you can install Microsoft's Unix Subsystem, which is a great deal faster than Cygwin (since it is native Win32 rather than an emulation), though it is harder to find Unix utilities for.
 
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  • #15
vociferous said:
I got one from work about four months ago, and it is really useful. It is a couple years old, but in good condition, and I payed only $150 for it. It is a shame that new ones run about $2000 for most models, and that they are such a small market.

BTW, if you have XP Pro or Vista Enterprise/Ultimate, you can install Microsoft's Unix Subsystem, which is a great deal faster than Cygwin (since it is native Win32 rather than an emulation), though it is harder to find Unix utilities for.

The least expensive tabletpcs I know of are at Gateway http://www.gateway.com/convertible [Broken] (about $1000). There are also some good deals on refurbs from the Dell Outlet on the Dell XT tablets: http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks?c=us&cs=28&l=en&s=dfb . Certainly, high-end tablets can run $2000, or even $3000 (e.g. Toughbook TabletPC).

(By the way... the latest buzz is about a new Fujitsu T5010 that is being recommended at the Virginia Tech engineering school: http://www.eng.vt.edu/academics/comp_require.php [Broken] )

I use XP/Tablet. I believe cygwin is native... it's not running in a virtual machine on XP. I mainly use it because scripting in bash, perl, and python is often more efficient than using the GUI to do some things. In addition, those scripts are more portable to other platforms (like linux and osx) than .bat or .vbs files. I also use cygwin to write code with gcc... then process the output with scripts.
 
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  • #16
chi2cali08 said:
Im starting my freshman year in august and will also be majoring in physics. I haven't bought my laptop for school yet but I am leaning toward the macbook pro because it comes equipped with a state of the art graphics card, that will come in handy when looking at 3d graphs, and also a lot of other programs that will be useful.

The downside is that it starts off at $1999, you have to buy MS office separately (an additional 200 bucks), and it cost about $300 to insure.

Shoehorn, if ppl take your advice and don't get a laptop their freshman year how will they conveniently write papers, check their email, and do research? I know every school has a library but its a lot easier to just pick up your laptop and instantly do anyone of those things.

You should look at using openOffice as a completely free alternative to MS Office. It can create and edit .doc, .ppt, .xls, and it has all the features that any student will need from MS Office. It is available on Windows, OSX, and Linux.

I think a physics major should start using OSX or Linux as early in their career as possible.

I recommend a cheap 500$ Dell laptop that ships with Linux if possible. Otherwise learn to install it to replace Windows.

I also strongly recommend getting the Linux student versions of Mathematica and/or Matlab.
 
  • #17
robphy said:
The least expensive tabletpcs I know of are at Gateway http://www.gateway.com/convertible [Broken] (about $1000). There are also some good deals on refurbs from the Dell Outlet on the Dell XT tablets: http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks?c=us&cs=28&l=en&s=dfb . Certainly, high-end tablets can run $2000, or even $3000 (e.g. Toughbook TabletPC).

(By the way... the latest buzz is about a new Fujitsu T5010 that is being recommended at the Virginia Tech engineering school: http://www.eng.vt.edu/academics/comp_require.php [Broken] )

I use XP/Tablet. I believe cygwin is native... it's not running in a virtual machine on XP. I mainly use it because scripting in bash, perl, and python is often more efficient than using the GUI to do some things. In addition, those scripts are more portable to other platforms (like linux and osx) than .bat or .vbs files. I also use cygwin to write code with gcc... then process the output with scripts.

HP makes one aimed at the home market which starts at about $1000. It is a nice laptop, but it lacks some of the features of higher end models, like a high resolution screen, intel processor, and the ability to swap the CD drive for a second battery.

I know Cygwin uses a Linux API layer. My understanding, and experience is that this slows it down. Since you have XP pro on your tablet PC, you might want to try out the UNIX subsystem for Windows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows_Services_for_UNIX
 
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  • #18
Crosson said:
You should look at using openOffice as a completely free alternative to MS Office. It can create and edit .doc, .ppt, .xls, and it has all the features that any student will need from MS Office. It is available on Windows, OSX, and Linux.

I think a physics major should start using OSX or Linux as early in their career as possible.

I recommend a cheap 500$ Dell laptop that ships with Linux if possible. Otherwise learn to install it to replace Windows.

I also strongly recommend getting the Linux student versions of Mathematica and/or Matlab.

Actually, I see no reason, at least in the beginning, to buy Mathematica. For most students and professors I know who tried Maxima, it satisfied all their needs. For Matlab the possibilities are usually less satisfy, indeed... Although they worth a try (Scilab, Euler, Octave).
 
  • #19
The-herod said:
Actually, I see no reason, at least in the beginning, to buy Mathematica. For most students and professors I know who tried Maxima, it satisfied all their needs. For Matlab the possibilities are usually less satisfy, indeed... Although they worth a try (Scilab, Euler, Octave).

I would check with what the school uses. They may already have a site license.

In addition, it's probably good to use whatever your professors and fellow students use.
It's easier to get help... and to use materials that they have already produced. (It might not be fun to always be translating what they have done into another platform... although in the long run, it's probably useful.)

Of course, no one says you can't use two or more packages.
I do... and often switch back and forth... depending on my task.
 
  • #20
I am not in college or ever taken a full year's stay at a college (i am in fith grade :D) but i have taken a college course in trig i used to give quizzes early (i had to move, in fact i am moving tommorrow!) in a physics class. And in my opinion if you buy/get a microcontroller, EEPROM(optional but recommmended), led screen, few resistors, tools, buttons, PCB you can make a scientific calc for under $8 and 1-2 hours of work or if you want a graphing calc instead of an led screen get a small (3" by 3" is REALLY BIG and useful) lcd screen instead (that will probably take a lot more programming but you can download code off of the internet). i you can even add custom butttons that are useful like you can add some for useful constants like gravity on earth, wavelengths, and you can have additional memory with the EEPROM(that's why its recommended) and basically you can keep adding stuff as you go along so instead of $2000 for a computer you spend under $30-$35 on a graphing calc made at home (this assumes you already have a computer to program the microcontroller and EEPROM)but all this leads that you don't really NEED a computer but it would be helpful to have one.
 
  • #21
Astronuc said:
I got through physics with just a calculator, and actually did my freshman year with a sliderule.
I'm surprised to see all the responses against getting a laptop as a freshman. When's the last time any of you were college freshmen? :biggrin: Today it seems fairly necessary to do quite a bit of work on the computer and it is quite convenient to manage and own your own rather than going to the library. Even if you are a physics major, you're still going to be taking English and History classes that are less likely to accept handwritten work, and may have significant required online use.
 
  • #22
Mk said:
I'm surprised to see all the responses against getting a laptop as a freshman. When's the last time any of you were college freshmen? :biggrin: Today it seems fairly necessary to do quite a bit of work on the computer

If you have the misfortune of finding yourself in a university which requires you -- as a first-year student -- to spend a significant proportion of your time sitting in front of a computer, any computer, you're being short changed. There is no conceivable reason whatsoever why a first-year student should have to have a laptop. None.

I'm horrified at what must be happening at universities in the US if new students are being led to believe that a laptop is a necessary item. (This isn't wanton US-bashing: I'm genuinely concerned by the thought of new students being required to go even further into debt for something which should be seen as an unnecessary luxury.)
 
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  • #23
I like what you said a lot though, shoehorn, and I think I agree. It might actually be great for somebody to actually not have a personal computer in college today.
 
  • #24
A computer is pretty much a necessity at universities today. Hypothetically, it is certainly possible to survive without one, but only with great difficulty. Most universities have at least one or two 24 hour labs, but they can fill up, there may be a waiting time, and it may or may not have the software that you need.

If you have a computer with the necessary software, especially a laptop, you can do your work anytime, anywhere. A lot of research needs to be done online, and there are a lot of papers to write. Someone who began their freshmen year in the last millennium may not be able to appreciate the fact that not having a computer at university is about equal to not having your own copy of the required textbooks.

I should also add that today, a low-end laptop is about the same price as two or three big textbooks. The price is not particularly devastating, especially if you only have to buy one or two your entire stay.
 
  • #25
shoehorn said:
If you have the misfortune of finding yourself in a university which requires you -- as a first-year student -- to spend a significant proportion of your time sitting in front of a computer, any computer, you're being short changed. There is no conceivable reason whatsoever why a first-year student should have to have a laptop. None.

I'm horrified at what must be happening at universities in the US if new students are being led to believe that a laptop is a necessary item. (This isn't wanton US-bashing: I'm genuinely concerned by the thought of new students being required to go even further into debt for something which should be seen as an unnecessary luxury.)

computer is indeed a necessity, cause the lecturers,TAs tend to send information concerning the course which is vital.
Today also TAs (some of them) post their class exercises in the course website, so I don't see how you can bypass it unless they copy it with xerox machines and send the copies to the students.
 
  • #26
loop quantum gravity said:
computer is indeed a necessity, cause the lecturers,TAs tend to send information concerning the course which is vital.
Today also TAs (some of them) post their class exercises in the course website, so I don't see how you can bypass it unless they copy it with xerox machines and send the copies to the students.

Nonsense. There's nothing wrong with having course notes on the web -- apart from the fact that it always causes a significant drop in attendance at lectures -- but I don't see why printed copies of handouts can't be given at lectures or by TAs.

Regardless, I stand by the original point that if you find yourself at a university which doesn't have a sufficient number of open-access machines with which to view your online course materials, your university isn't being run well.
 
  • #27
loop quantum gravity said:
computer is indeed a necessity

Pretty much. I had instructors put reading assignments online, give online assignments, email announcements to classes, and even use online textbooks.
 
  • #28
shoehorn said:
If you have the misfortune of finding yourself in a university which requires you -- as a first-year student -- to spend a significant proportion of your time sitting in front of a computer, any computer, you're being short changed. There is no conceivable reason whatsoever why a first-year student should have to have a laptop. None.

I'm horrified at what must be happening at universities in the US if new students are being led to believe that a laptop is a necessary item. (This isn't wanton US-bashing: I'm genuinely concerned by the thought of new students being required to go even further into debt for something which should be seen as an unnecessary luxury.)

While I appreciate your care and concern which appears to be genuine, you may be a bit out of touch with the way modern universities are operating. The world is integrating technology and computers into its basic operating structure, and universities are no different.

My university is heavily computer-oriented. Some assignments are given online, many are turned in online, lectures notes and schedules are posted online, a few professors even use online software to administer quizzes (but large exams are always done in class without exception). Most students have laptops or computers of some sort and put them to good use. The university operates a full computer repair and IT service just for its students. The campus has tons of computer sites preloaded with all the software one might possibly need no matter what one's major is.

Many degree programs are structured assuming students have their own computers or are willing to spend a significant amount of time using the school's computer sites. This is overall a *good* thing. Computers are powerful learning tools. I firmly believe that if one has sufficient computer skills, one will learn significantly more through four years of college math if one uses a computer with mathematical or maple than will another student who's using a sliderule or a simple scientific calculator because the computer facilitates sophisticated mathematical explorations that are impossible with the calculator.

How is spending time in front of a computer any worse really than spending time in front of a piece of paper and pencil?

And I think you're exaggerating the cost of laptops. The total cost of college for four years is going to be about $50,000 for most schools (quadruple that at least for Ivy League schools). An extra $800 - $1000 for a laptop that will last all that time is not much in comparison.

Regardless, I stand by the original point that if you find yourself at a university which doesn't have a sufficient number of open-access machines with which to view your online course materials, your university isn't being run well.

Well, most schools I know of do have plenty of open-access machines, but it is much more convenient for the student to just have a computer of his own. But if this is your main point, then I would tend to agree with you more that the previous part of this post suggests.
 
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  • #29
In response to the original question, the answer really depends on your school and your own computer habits. Some people are frankly much better at putting a laptop to good use than are others.

If you're not going to use the laptop for anything but writing the occasional English paper, then I'd get a cheap Dell laptop around the $600 price tag and upload my documents to Google Docs instead of spending money on an external hard drive.

If you plan on using your computer extensively to do mathematical investigations, however, then I'd go for a more powerful computer. It's more expensive, but if you properly utilize the tools you'll get your money's worth. I'm a strong believer that the computer is to the mathematician as the laboratory is to the chemist. With tools like Mathematica, Maple, MATLAB, etc., and authoring tools such as LaTeX, significant mathematical research can be done with a computer.

I personally use a Macbook Pro. Mac OS X comes with a fantastic graphing program called Grapher. It's tucked away in the Applications/Utilities folder. Apple should be advertising this thing more; it's a marvelous program and was a pleasant surprise when I found it. Mac OS X also has built-in software for viewing PDFs and PostScript files which is far superior to the extremely bloated Adobe Acrobat (which last time I used it did not even view PostScript files).

Ultimately the PC vs. Mac decision will just be your personal preference. Neither platform is definitively better than the other. I suppose you should keep in mind that it's easy to dual boot Windows (XP or Vista) on any new Intel-based Mac.

The biggest downside to a Mac is obviously the price. The price differential is slowly decreasing over the years, but Macs are generally slightly more expensive than similar PCs. The Macbook Pro offers the best performance to price ratio and competes very strongly with other PC laptops. The Macbook Air is an absolute no for college; it's underpowered, overpriced, it lacks a CD drive, and the thin factor is cool but not needed for hardly anyone. The Macbook is better but it's still a bit underpowered for the price.
 
  • #30
If your school "requires" you to have IT access and does not provide it, then you are indeed being short changed. It is an unreasonable request; you should make sure that your instructors give you hard copy of everything. An expectation to read e-mail once per day is not unreasonable, though, from my experience.

If your school just presumes that you will have some (self-provided) machine to access things like on-line tests (which will be web-based), or download notes (which will be in pdf for a physics course), then it doesn't matter what computer you buy at all.

The idea of buying a mac laptop 'cos of the graphics card is indeed laughable. (And I have 4 macs lying around the place so please don't accuse me of being M$ biased.)

If you want a decent laptop that will be of use scientifically (to a physicist, mathematician (I see a lot of Macs at conferences) or even a geneticist), then a Mac is a good choice. It's BSD underpinnings mean lots of useful things like good CLI tools and a proper LaTeX distro exist, and are easy to obtain. Check out surf for fancy graphing, for example, too, or some of the gene sequencers that are written for Mac.

Moreover, they are on a proper laptop - I gave up on Linux on a laptop a long time ago, when even under Gentoo I found hibernation and proper ACPI control to be impossible.
 
  • #31
Yeah, you really shouldn't be buying any laptop just because of the graphics card. Laptops are just not gaming machines. My Macbook Pro actually can play current games pretty well (I've tested out Oblivion and Unreal tournament 3), but there's no way it will keep up with games like a desktop would. Dell makes laptops that have dual 8800s in them, but the battery life is under an hour on average and the machines have heat issues.

Some magazine (I don't remember which one unfortunately) was only able to get one of the Dell laptops with dual 8800s to run for an hour on the battery while merely surfing the internet--no games or anything.
 
  • #32
n_bourbaki said:
If you want a decent laptop that will be of use scientifically (to a physicist, mathematician (I see a lot of Macs at conferences) or even a geneticist), then a Mac is a good choice. It's BSD underpinnings mean lots of useful things like good CLI tools and a proper LaTeX distro exist, and are easy to obtain. Check out surf for fancy graphing, for example, too, or some of the gene sequencers that are written for Mac.

XP is also a good choice.
I use Cygwin for my CommandLineInterface needs and MikTeX for my LaTeX needs.
As I mentioned earlier [in reference to Math software... but it also applies to computer platforms], it's probably a good idea to be compatible with what your professors and classmates use... especially if you are new to using a computer.
 

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