Is Macbookpro suitable for programming?

[Geeker·Zifeng]

I am a university student. Do you want to know that programming is suitable for Macbookpro? Have anyone ever been able to share some experience?

 

[maflynn]

Yes, of course it's very suitable. Many developers use the MBP, to write iOS and macOS programs. There's a plethora of tools available for the developer to write code as well

 

[biffuz]

The 15" sure is. I used mine to develop for a living for years, running VMs, databases, IDEs, without problems. In fact I preferred it even when I was given other laptops which I was supposed to use (they were slower, of course).

 

[redheeler]

I am a university student. Do you want to know that programming is suitable for Macbookpro? Have anyone ever been able to share some experience?

MacOS is the best OS for developers IMHO. Xcode, Eclipse, Visual Studio, Android Studio, GIT clients, FTP clients, SQL, VM software, etc. are all available, plus you get built-in BASH and the benefits of a real UNIX OS. AFAIK the percentage of enterprises using Macs is higher now than it used to be as well.

 

[leman]

No, it’s only for photo editing

Of course it’s suitable. It’s a fully fledged Unix that can run almost every developer tool. It’s certainly better for general purpose programming than Windows.

 

[plexfit]

Yes, of course it's very suitable. Many developers use the MBP, to write iOS and macOS programs. There's a plethora of tools available for the developer to write code as well

Wouldn't exaggerate to state that I normally ask companies I interviewed with what laptop they use and I turned down offers from companies offering anything other than a Macbook.

 

[csurfr]

A lot of schools recommend Mac only if you're going for something such as Full Stack Javascript. The only possible downside to programming on the Mac is if you're wanting to do .net core, as Visual Studio for the Mac is a bit different than the windows counterpart (VS Mac is based on Xamarin Forms I believe).

edit: for clarification: by "Mac only" I mean they specifically recommend Mac FOR full stack. Not ONLY for full stack.

 

[Schranke]

Not having much experience with programming, but my 2 cents on the matter is to look at what keyboard layout would be preferable. As a native dane I have grown up with a danish keyboard layout but have recently changed to international English as it would be more useful for my further usage of my machine, which includes learning at least a little bit of coding at some point.

all layout
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201794

 

[duervo]

I am a university student. Do you want to know that programming is suitable for Macbookpro? Have anyone ever been able to share some experience?

MacBook Pro (13 or 15”) will be fine for university programming. 12” MacBook with Retina display will be fine as well.

Just make sure you have enough storage and RAM for a couple VMs (Windows and maybe Linux) and you should be fine. 4GB+ RAM for macOS, 4GB for a Windows VM, and it should be ok. 512GB storage and 16GB RAM is what I would get these days if I were doing a CIS degree again.

The Pro will last you beyond college. The MacBook, maybe not so much.

Oh wait ... let me rephrase that ...

Barring any keyboard issues, the Pro should last you beyond college. The MacBook, maybe not so much.

 

[Ma2k5]

Yes very much so, although the new touch bar and the butterfly keyboard isn't too programmer friendly (imo). Still, you can hook it up to an external mouse/keyboard.

 

[0002378]

Most certainly, YES !

I have done a TON of programming on my 9 year old Macbook Pro, and it was a breeze.

If you get one of the newer MBPs, it will be awesome for programming.

 

[Sterkenburg]

Absolutely. I'd go as far as saying that it's actually the overall best laptop for developers, offering a full-fledged Unix environment with an OS that is actually pleasant to use, plus pretty much all the tools you might want for the job.

Also, MBPs are de facto the standard laptops for many large Silicon Valley companies and for a large chunk of the computer science community.

 

[Beau10]

The only possible downside to programming on the Mac is if you're wanting to do .net core, as Visual Studio for the Mac is a bit different than the windows counterpart

Running windows in a VM is super common if you have to do .NET dev (I did at a job where I did Rails, Angular, and C#).

Aside from .NET or game dev, most other types of programming are better served by OSX or Linux.