What is the best laptop for a physics major? Also

This. I just built a PC and got a cheap surface. It's the perfect combo of strength and portability.

Two years ago I got a dell laptop with digitizer that I failed to realize had no driver support for a fucking stylus, which is the only thing I intended to use the digitizer for. How are you liking the surface for writing? Did you get the keyboard? I always thought it was greedy as shit to sell the keyboard separately. Also I'm a linux asshole so I'm not sure how great the support for a decidedly microsoft product is... But that's my problem.

Any cheap laptop will do. Install Linux on it, LaTeX, a compiler, etc, as needed.

...

One that can connect to a cloud computing/quantum cloud computing system. No need to do anything on your computer if it can be done on a remote server or quantum computer.

I have a shitty ass netbook (800mhz 512ram integrated hamster video graphics) that nearly dies with flash applications. I use cloud computing to do just about everything from playing the latest high graphics video games to running Maplesoft programs.

What OS you use on your laptop doesn't matter either since you'll be using whatever OS you like on the remote host.

have the hp omen, it's fantastic for everything
portable, looks sexy, renders and can handle intense gaming. plenty of ports, keyboard is fantastic with the macro keys. can get it for 900, specs:
960m 2-4gb, i74270 extreme, 8-16gb, 256-512GB all SSD, one being PCIe. it looks hot and can do anything you ask it phenomenonly

>can handle intense gaming.
What's that battery life like? I bought one laptop with a dedicated GPU and will never do so again. Seems like external GPUs will be a thing in the future anyway.

I can't speak for physics, but I work in software (in the SF Bay Area) and professionals in software here almost universally use macbook pros or macbook airs.

It's because we spend ALL our time on the computer and little quality of life things like build quality, reliable multi-touch gestures, and battery life make a huge difference. We don't have time to be dicking around with the OS configuration on our laptop (waste enough time doing that with the servers).

The hardware+software just work better together to create a better experience because they only have support very limited set of hardware. Plus Homebrew (brew.sh) is a pretty decent package manager these days.

I guess if you're in college and have a lot of time to smoke weed and play video games then maybe getting a big Windows rig and dual boot Linux though.

The only person out of our physics undergrads that had a Mac was a former art major that talked about kerning all the time. Jesus H Christ it's like you peeked inside my brain or something.

>the people with the macbook are some old fucks

Are you literally retarded? When those people were born we were still producing bronze tools ffs.

You know just by looking at their faces that they asked their teenage nephew to pick them a computer and you also know that those guys are just veteran manager type workers who use those computers to send/receive emails and type up documents, not do any kind of serious simulation/engineering work.

If you are actually able to tell me the name of one of the guys and show that he is the lead scientist engineer simulation C developer then I'll be fucking damned, but until then... you are retarded.

It'd be cute to watch the children with the macbooks talking about kerning if they weren't also fucking wrong. Guess what, LCD displays are not paper. Maybe in cases that aren't a fucking print preview they should render like LCD displays and not paper. No, no, blurry text is right because it's what the font designer intended! See, with my macbook I get proper blurry text that looks like shit, and that's how it should be, because that's how it was designed!

I don't even give a shit about text. I just hate bad arguments for non-features from fanboys and I end up sounding like one. This is what they do to me.

>best laptop for physics major
Depends if that physics major runs simulations in his/her laptop or not.

I use an Asus Flip 2-in-1 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive

It runs so smooth, and it's one of the most comfortable laptops I've ever used. Cost me a lot though. I do not study computational physics, just theoretical. I've had one problem ever running a code - and that's because I forgot to adjust some limits and ended up trying to calculate and store some incredibly large number of values. Like 100 Billion or something. Totally unnecessary and accidental, and it used up the memory and froze my shit.

Good laptop though. Even has an Ethernet port, which most don't come with any more.

Everyone at JPL is old. One even has stickers, that's the sign of a programmer.

Nearly every researcher in the math and CS departments at my school uses a Macbook. OS X is also much better than Windows for any physics related usage.

>Build quality
Stop comparing $2500 laptop to $300 laptops with other operating systems. Actually look at other comparable laptops (prob for cheaper).

>Mulitouch
Buy a regular mouse - not that bullshit Apple calls a mouse

>Battery life
i'll give you that one, but it's not like it's hitting everyone else out of the ballpark. See here: laptops.specout.com/compare/6005-6755/ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-2015-vs-13-inch-MacBook-Pro-with-Retina-Display-2015-Base-Model

You don't have to do hardly any OS config when you get a laptop to get it up and running. Every Unix based OS has amazing package managers. Most already come with a larger set of software to get you going. Hell Mac no longer ships X11 with their OS: imore.com/x11-and-disturbing-trend-apple-removing-functionality-os-x

I use a MacBook Pro and it's pretty nice. I'm a Linux guy and MacOS is similar (at least for me). I code a lot and mac uses the same compilers as Linux and Xcode is nice for C++. I use LaTeX and Python's matplotlib for doing reports (I get As just by making pretty documents). But the most important thing is that I enjoy working on a machine that is crafted so nicely. The trackpad is sublime and the screen is awesome. If you are a retard that likes to take a brick to places just to have an i7 with nvidia gtx googloplexM and 4h of battery life so you can play Minecraft at glorious 700fps, go ahead.

> idiots in this thread who claim to use TeX and don't care about kerning
>don knuth died for this

>One even has stickers, that's the sign of a programmer.

See, this one offends me because I'm a programmer... you motherfucker.

Stickers on a laptop is equal to undeniable autism. The only people I've seen with stickers are disgusting gaymers and girls.

Holy shit, how out of touch are you. I've had so many machines in my life and not even once have put ANYTHING on it. Not a single thing,

>government employees know what's up and don't just buy a box of 1000 units of the fanciest shit marketed towards them

>It's because we spend ALL our time on the computer
As someone in software, this is why I use linux.

>We don't have time to be dicking around with the OS configuration on our laptop
I rarely spend more than 30 minutes setting up a brand new OS, and I don't switch terribly often. This is a strawman unless you are incompetent.

>The hardware+software just work better together
Anecdotal. Maybe you're remembering the old days of linux. Times have changed. Just take 5 minutes on google to find out if the laptop brand is garbage for open source. Thinkpads aren't. I'm using a dell and no problems. You can say "yeah but I can choose any apple product and it will work with apple's OS" but that's a shit argument and you know it - research through google is part of your fucking career.

>Plus Homebrew (brew.sh) is a pretty decent package manager these days.
Personal preference, never used it.

>big Windows rig and dual boot Linux though.
Dual booting is garbage, if you have money to throw around get a dedicated gaming desktop and a work laptop.

>I'm a Linux guy and MacOS is similar (at least for me). I code a lot and mac uses the same compilers as Linux and Xcode is nice for C++.
No offense, but are you new? You sound like you're using "linux guy" to mean "anti-windows guy".

>If you are a retard that likes to take a brick to places just to have an i7 with nvidia gtx googloplexM and 4h of battery life
Is that the only other option? Gaming laptops are for spoiled children. The battery life is usually worse than that, 4h is advertised, you really get 2.5 to 3 without gaming. It's a plug-in machine if you are gaming. Miserable experience as well.

battery life is meh cause this, always bring the adapter, but have usually always had it plugged in

Why do you all hate Macs so much? They are legit good computers with a solid OS they are just overpriced is their problem

I've always thought of Apple as more of a brand than a product. It's been that way for me since those stupid "I'm a Mac" commercials that really turned me off. They struck me as incredibly insulting. Those commercials trained people who knew nothing about computing how to be asshats to everyone else. People would walk around just repeating their talking points from the TV. If you hear the phrase "Everything just works" - that's where the phrase comes from. Their advertising is everpresent. I hate how they have to shove their brand name all over the place. They had to make their logo glow to really show it off. Then a few years ago they automatically added "Sent from my iPhone" to every email. More fuel to the fire of my hatred.

That's not to say I can't eat my pride with respect to other products. I cannot stand how Coca-Cola shoves themselves into everything on television ever (like the upcoming Olympics). But it doesn't change that fact that it's my favorite soft drink.

The technical reasons why I won't buy Mac can be summed up in two words: closed environment. I'm not allowed to pick my own hardware. I'm not allowed to put the OS on anything I want. I can't take my product to a third party to get anything fixed (like with all other computers). I can't use my own mouse or my own keyboard. I can't get 3rd party software on it. Apple won't vet anything else. I already didn't like that Apple seems like more a product than a brand, but the fact that they force you to buy every single possible overpriced accessory/support kills any chance of me wanting a Mac.

Everything else is sort of secondary to that. They have their high points of course. I like their support of the free software community, and their hardware is good.

Ok this is finally a nice rational non /g/ autist critique of Apple. Thank you for your input.

I was considering one but as with you the closed environment is what's putting me off. My aunt has an iMac and while she likes it she does bitch that she can only buy apple accessories and can only use apple software for certain things. The screen is gorgeous though so I dunno I'm still on the fence.

As for the pushy adverting, you can't hate them for it, it's how you make money in the West.

No, I employ algorithms to perform these numerical calculations for me.

Hey if you like it go for it. Cheers.

Any laptop where it is easy to get to the god damn fan and clean/replace it.

Eurocom

This thread should be on

>Ok this is finally a nice rational non /g/ autist critique of Apple.
here. I wouldn't expect anyone needed their advertising model or the pushy "one of us" fanboy-creating attitude explained. You can say that's normal in the west, but I think they take it to a rare extreme. Closed hardware and proprietary apple bullshit layered ontop of free software is my biggest distaste for the OS. It'd be a massive pain in the ass to develop for it I suppose I've gotten tired of attempting to explain this and being met with complete and total disinterest or "so what its easy and pretty and i dont have to RECOMPILE MY KERNEL HAHAHARHRAHRH". So that's where I'm coming from.

Since you're interested, in addition to agreeing with the post you responded to, I'll add expand on high points. Heavily open-source compatible, moreso than Windows will ever be even after paying Canonical to port command-line utils. And that's with a much longer history of Windows' userbase attempting to fix this problem. I hate their peripherals but their laptops and desktops have a very high minimum build quality -- there don't seem to be shitty models. That comes at a relatively high price, but you wont be disappointed with that aspect. For the creative crowd I referenced, they are hitting a lot of marks to keep them interested. Kerning bullshit aside, they have been pushing DPI and color quality for longer than competitors.

This is all coming from second-hand experience by someone who will likely never buy an apple product for personal use, only for testing my own software because running OSX in a VM seems to be a pain in the ass (which I consider a con) and I lean towards AMD processors which are completely incompatible. So I suppose that should reinforce the positives.

/g/ are mostly gamer losers and technophiles with too much money to spend on razer bullshit. This is about workstations for physics majors or undergrad/grad students.

Yeah. I got the keyboard and stylus. The writing feels really nice. My only complaint is that sometimes when I write with the stylus my hand touching the screen can interrupt it. I tested it out. Apparently, if your whole hand is touching the screen, the surface ignores it. But, if just some of it touches the screen, the stylus will be interrupted. I'm looking for a fix for this. I read that you can disable the touch screen manually when you use the pen. That way it only registers the pen and nothing else. Haven't tried it yet. Still, I think it was worth the money.

Mein Geist ist mein Labor

Spent less that 500 dollars on a lenovo laptop. Put Ubuntu on it. Two years later, runs great. Been a great investment. I run Mathematica and do coding on it. Also ran current games pretty well.

Get yourself a chromebook, install ubuntu on it, then install Matlab.

Done.

fucking this, stickers are subhuman / underage tier

What kind of question is this even supposed to be?

What answer do you really expect? Do you think that there is some specific laptop that is going to give you some kind of super powers to get all A's in your physics classes? What do you think is going to be recommended?

Get a laptop that uses Windows. Wow, that was very complicated for me and mind blowing for you, wasn't it, OP?

>/g/
>gamers
>razer

If you don't visit /g/, you should just say so without pretending you know that board. /g/ is all about timesink OS, ricing your desktop, and free* software. (Also traps making the best programmers)

>The technical reasons why I won't buy Mac can be summed up in two words: closed environment. I'm not allowed to pick my own hardware.
You can, look up Hackintosh
>I'm not allowed to put the OS on anything I want.
You can, it's a UNIX based system
>I can't take my product to a third party to get anything fixed (like with all other computers).
You can, but actually, this is the one thing thats good about macs. Their tech support is brilliant. To the point of them just throwing a new macbook at you to fix issues.
>I can't use my own mouse or my own keyboard.
That's just not true. At all. Not even slightly.
>I can't get 3rd party software on it.
Completely untrue
>Apple won't vet anything else.
What are you even refering to?
>I already didn't like that Apple seems like more a product than a brand, but the fact that they force you to buy every single possible overpriced accessory/support kills any chance of me wanting a Mac.
But they don't.

OSX (Or whatever they recently re-branded to) is just as closed as Windows 10.

In all honesty though, Linux is the way to go.
*Free as in freedom

>I'm not allowed to put the OS on anything I want.
>You can, it's a UNIX based system

Ignore that point, I misread the sentence. That's a fairly valid point actually.

>Get a laptop that uses Windows
Your post began so well and ended ao miserably like ww I

This. You dont need a laptop for physics but if you dont have a pc of any kind buy a cheap laptop and leave it at home .

Personally i also use the cheapest lenovo 1080p tablet for comfy textbook reading but you dont need that.

Hackintosh is just that. A hack. You cannot expect to get any sort of consistent behavior out of it. Trying to run any other linux system on a mac is going to be hell. People joke about having to recompile kernels, but you might actually have to recompile your kernel to work with the unique system hardware.

Amazing tech support: bbc.com/news/technology-35502030

For a while Apple blocked all 3rd party software on iPhones. They still limit it through the app store. Apple doesn't like it? Tough. It's gone.

Most mouse/keyboard are made with PC in mind. It turns out there are some minor hiccups (like having to play with mouse sensitivity settings) but nothing major like I remembered. Their 3rd party support for mice, keyboards, mics, etc... used to be terrible.

Many of my complaints about their closed nature have to do with their phones/tablets. See here: popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-01/ipad’s-closed-system-sometimes-i-hate-being-right Their computers used to be this way too, and they still are very resistant to letting 3rd party software developers have free reign. They also sure as shit won't let people develop on the hardware on the OS X. They also have many closed source frameworks.

Yes comrade Linux is definitely best.

Strangely enough most professors in my uni like Mac for some reason

computers supplied by the university for the most part run debian with KDE. the secretary PCs sometimes run windows, but linux is clearly dominant.

computers the lecturers get for themselves are almost exclusively macbook pros, with the odd thinkpad running linux thrown in. the reason for this is that you get a complete system with an os that provides everything openly, as far as physicists are concerned, that is 1. LaTeX, 2. text editors, 3. PowerPoint/Keynote, 4. field specific simulation (which is largely java), 5. built-in ssh support (for the guys working on more powerful hardware they need to remote into and the guys controlling lab equipment running linux), 6. Matlab/Mathematica.

this is how it is here (physics department in major German universities, we have nobel prize winners lecturing; same for the maths/computer science department here, although in CS the ratio between OSes is more even on private machines). i know windows is more commonly used in other scientific branches around the uni, and also more commonly used in other physics departments of similar unis.

however, anyone saying OS X is "for artists" clearly doesn't have a hint of an idea what he is talking about, has been injected with the /g/ virus and has clearly never actually worked in science. or is an engineer, which disqualifies you from having an informed opinion on tool chains altogether since you've never used anything else but windows and thus cannot possibly know anything about the others.

Physics undergrads usually don't really need heavy lifting unless you get a modelling based course, otherwise an i5 core range with 8GiB of ram is more than enough for light simulation work, in general I would recommend more though depending on if you have a functional or minimalist approach to your workstation.

>/sci workstation thread
Pic related is my home setup, I have a Xeon workstation on campus and other than for major simulations/optimizations (which often consumes 50GiB+ RAM) I've never had issues with virtually the same activities on my home PC. 16GiB RAM is more enough to be comfortable for every day work (keeping open browsers, IDE(s), a typesetter, consoles, pdf viewers, media player, and running small optimizations/scripts).

Install Linux. Windows is for stupid people. They will make excuses for using it in the same vein of "smart, but lazy xD" only spouting bullshit about software compatability, but when you get them venerable/drunk enough they all admit they wish they could use linux, but it's too complicated for them. Appleshit is not for real computing and shouldn't cross your mind.

>muh bash
>muh arch
>muh gtk
>muh noto sans regular

use centos + zsh and fuck DE

Solid arguments, centos is decent, probably better for anyone actually working in software

I use KDE's virtual desktops and activities, if you can find me a WM with similar functionality I'd dump my DE. Fonts/themes are defaults I believe. I don't use my DE as anything more than an X server with virtual WMs really.

I use bash because I only use the console/tty to run a few old bash/python scripts, git and package management, I don't need anything more.

>Games

Fucking manchildren shut the fuck up.

And then you realize you actually fucking need USB ports to have a functioning system.

wm: openbox (easy to use, easy to customize),
dwm (if u have time to customize)

lenovo thinkpad or if you can afford it a mac book pro, it's the only right answer.

I'm the post below yours (also an engineer; fuck you), I don't understand what the fuck "built-in ssh support" even means, apparently running $ ssh-keygen is too much to handle?

Libre's powerpoint equivalent, although it's improved a lot, is admittedly shit, but honestly presentations are far easier and faster to write by simply converting your paper's source code to a pdf presentation* rather than dicking around with WYSIWYG.

I don't have anything against people who buy apple, the portable devices you buy is largely inconsequential and comes to personal preference (Mac apparently being a sort of status symbol you might as well go for that). You're just not going to be using it as a dedicated workstations for obvious reasons.

There are no technically valid reasons to buy it (UNLESS you are in graphics in which case there are some minor technical advantages). As long as we aren't lying to ourselves about why we buy it it's ok.

>*Checkout themes like github.com/matze/mtheme for quality TeX presentations that are simple to write; I always receive compliments on the quality of my slides

PS: Are you guys really still using MATLAB? Unironically?

...

Thanks, the "mac is a closed environment" is a meme that must end. It's just a pretty UNIX people.

Yes, people are still using MATLAB. It's a sad world we live in.

>install linux

Ahaha this autism... Never ever have I encountered a case where using Linux has made life easier, UNLESS, you were dealing with linux-centric stuff (embedded development etc).

It doesn't matter. Your phone is powerful enough to do pretty much anything you could want to do durring an undergraduate education. So the important stuff is just the OS and how the laptop feels and any other requirements you might have.

>/sci
What the fuck is it with all these newfags!?

>Install Linux. Windows is for stupid people
t. Virgin

hahahaha... i remember that idiot from the occupy video.
>I'm a Maoist because capitalists can reject transgendered people
>Really? What would Mao and the Chinese Communists say to a transgendered person? How would they have treated you?
>Hippy interrupts
>We don't know what happened in history.
Camera couldn't stop laughing.
XD

I'm for Human Rights and all, but a Transgendered Maoist is like a Jewish Nazi.

alienware 13

or if you are rich razerblade 14

>t. Virgin
t. Stupid person

Something you can learn to program well on because you would be very smart to double major in CS/software engineering and physics.

Thinkpad T420
Get a refurbished one, they are robust, powerful and cheap

Double majoring is almost never a good idea.

Please elaborate

Not OP, but it is better to get really good at one subject by going in-depth, taking graduate classes, doing research, etc. Thank being okay at two.

For example, I know someone who did a dual major in EE and Math, they ended up getting pushed back half a year, and now he barely knows how to build a basic circuit, and only knows math up to real analysis.

Physics major here, don't get that.

You can run any program you need on a PC, but you can run most on a Mac too, so that doesn't matter. I run Origin fine, and I've never had to run a simulation that couldn't be done on my Macbook Pro. But if you must get a PC, don't get a Thinkpad. There's nothing worse than carrying a clunky brick of a laptop with no real processing power. I would laugh at you if I saw you with it. Who the fuck needs an extra set of trackpad buttons anyway?

Not smart. That's seriously a waste of time. If you're going to double major with physics, at least do it with math or some other science, like biology. Biophysics is a huge upcoming industry. But seriously, you don't need to "learn to program well" as a physicist. Any program you possibly need to write will be in Mathematica, Matlab, or Python. Literally the "small child"-tier languages. And the whole notion of getting a computer that you can learn to program on is outdated, since literally any modern computer is suited to process all of the major languages and can run all the major IDEs.

t. 4th Year Mathematical Physics Major

"built-in ssh support" means "no need to install putty or some other shit emulator like you have in windows". also, afaik, you have to run ssh-keygen all the same in OS X (although i might be wrong, i don't use it predominantly).

libre's powerpoint thing is really shit; powerpoint is fine, keynote is slightly better; while latex beamer is used a lot, powerpoint and keynote still have their following. i don't really care much either way, i use whatever i'm given a template for. layouting presentations is largely not worth my time, most of the work goes into data presentation (which isn't done in the presentation layout) anyway.

yes, the mac thing also, to a lesser extend, has to do with status. the physicists, however, actually do value the fact that - as i said - they're essentially getting the toolbox of unixoid systems without the hassle of doing all the yak shaving themselves. you may or may not consider this a "technically valid reason" or not; for me, it has largely become a question of what people feel the most comfortable with.

what's your beef with matlab? "we" are not using it (my main subject is CS, my secondary subject is theoretical physics, neither faculties use matlab), but yes, the experimental guys are using it to control setups and all of my engineering friends use it predominantly for control algorithms of vehicles.

ps: didn't mean to insult you as an engineer. you sound like you know what you're talking about. i simply have lots of friends who clearly fall into the aforementioned category.

The two vertical monitors are for R and SAS programming, writing reports, and viewing PDF's.

hackintosh is trash.

os x is by no means as closed as any windows. it is much, much, much closer to linux in terms of openness of the system. tons of it is actually open source (opensource.apple.com), it is mainly the UI which is completely closed.

...

holy shit. you arch fags really are the scum of the earth. crawl back into your hole, you're making me ashamed to have advocated for linux.

>If you don't visit /g/, you should just say so without pretending you know that board.
I did 4 years ago. I haven't returned. So sorry that times have changed, milady.

>You can, look up Hackintosh
Oh boy, I'm so hyped to load up an attempt to fix OSX to not be shit. It sure worked well with windows, all of those bash util kits aren't garbage at all. How about if I buy my own hardware, I just start with completely open software that was designed that way, instead of proprietary shit covered in bandaids and hacks.

>You can, but actually, this is the one thing thats good about macs.
If you don't know about Apple Certified Technicians, you should stop fanboying for them. Third-party tech support will cost you your warranty.

>To the point of them just throwing a new macbook at you to fix issues.
Oh. You seem to have missed "third party" or do not know what it means.

>@3rd party software & hardware
It's significantly more difficult than with linux because OSX makes itself a unique target for no fucking reason. And as I alluded to in one of my own posts somewhere up there, it's a pain in the ass to virtualize on other hardware so open source devs usually need to own an apple product to port. Unless you think hackintosh is suitable for testing, that would be like testing windows support with Wine.

>In all honesty though, Linux is the way to go.
Finally something I can agree with.

Keep telling yourself that. It's a good argument to inexperienced technophobes who do not understand what the differences are.

Biofag here, my chem department tried really hard to recruit me (or anyone else who showed a remote interest in chemistry) to dual major, I decided to add a minor which I don't regret. I got enough experience in chemistry to apply to my interests (virology) and didn't have anything I didn't need (i.e. P Chem)

>PS: Are you guys really still using MATLAB? Unironically?
If you work in controls, no amount of Python can replace MATLAB + Simulink.

??? misquote?