I have a budget of around $750 and I expect to be able to code in it. I honestly have not much idea what the ideal requirement of a laptop for a college student should be, which is why I am asking here to get an estimate of the specs I should be considering while choosing one. I would advice against naming any specific laptop as I have no guarantee of its availability in my region.
Whatever you do, do NOT buy a gaming laptop. They usually have utterly terrible battery life and are very noisy.
If you are planning to code then for your own sanity, install Linux or get a Mac.
No. Please stop supporting their soldered-in designed-ewaste ways
Just install Linux OP, you’ll get far more computer for the money AND you’ll be able to upgrade it in the future by avoiding a Mac
You had me in the first half
There are legitimate reasons to buy a Mac. For example I knew a guy in university who, in addition to being a computer science major, was an avid amateur filmmaker and frequently took filmmaking classes as electives. For that, he needed Premier Pro which doesn’t run on Linux, but does run on Mac. So he bought a used MacBook Pro.
Yes but the reasons to do so are specific and few and far between. OP did not say anything about Filmmaking, which is one of the few areas that there aren’t a whole lot of alternatives.
You definitely don’t need a Mac for CS/coding and nearly all other college work which is what OP mentioned.
And a used MacBook means you are a lot closer to a SSD failure, that you can’t easily replace because it’s all soldered just like Apple wants
Kdenlive and Davinci Resolve say hi.
Industry standards and class requirements say “hi”.
Well fuck so called Industry standards and class requirements.
The digital world should be built upon non proprietary “standards”.
That’s a nice speech but if your boss tells you to use Premier Pro and you don’t, you get fired. If the assignment says to use Premier Pro and you turn in a Davinci Resolve project, you get a zero.
I don’t disagree that the status quo is bad, but you can’t pretend that the standards as they are don’t exist just because you don’t agree with them.
Well fuck that teach if they require you to use proprietary shit.
And fuck that company as well.
Yes the status quo exist and I refuse to accept it.
Besides to circle back, if company and course require software they need to have to provide it and hardware to run it on.
It goes without saying that it’s reasonable to expect a company you work for to provide a company computer for work purposes.
But if a cheque from the company pays for the food on my table and the roof over my head, if they say “dance” during work hours, I’m gonna dance.