Top choice for coding tasks is a modern operating system that supports development tools and performance.
Top choice for coding tasks is a modern operating system that supports development tools and performance.
Take care of your device by ensuring it has ample space for files and applications.
I used both Windows and Linux during university. Game development and certain group tasks ran best on Windows; networking projects were better in Linux, while web, mobile, or embedded topics felt smoother there. I had three hard drives as an undergraduate—Linux, games, and Windows for coursework.
The Dell seems likely to perform better than the others with Linux. Setting up a development environment in Linux is simpler since you can install all necessary tools directly from the official repositories, and everything is already included in your PATH. On Windows, maintaining libraries or languages other than Java and C++ (especially with MSVC) becomes more challenging as updates and path management require extra effort. However, game development using engines like UE4 or Unity remains straightforward. Visual Studio offers a powerful IDE but isn't essential. Qt Creator is a cross-platform C++ tool that's user-friendly compared to Visual Studio, though it doesn’t match its capabilities entirely. Ubuntu provides the most accessible community support and beginner-friendly defaults. Regular updates occur every six months for standard versions and every two years for long-term stable releases. Releases are frozen except for critical security patches, with important software like Firefox and Chromium receiving updates infrequently. Debian serves as the foundation for Ubuntu, offering a minimal default setup that’s ideal for newcomers. It updates roughly every two years and boasts the largest official repository among Linux distros. openSUSE Leap features an active community and offers two versions: Leap and Tumbleweed. Its repositories are smaller than Ubuntu’s but maintain high quality. For software not bundled by default—such as various games or emulators—search the Open Build Service. openSUSE Leap releases annually, while Fedora updates every six months with frequent interim updates, resulting in more consistent snapshots. Arch Linux provides cutting-edge features but demands more technical know-how; it’s best avoided for beginners. Manjaro, built on Arch, is user-friendly and quick to install, though updates lag slightly behind Arch. Antergos, another Arch-based option, uses a simpler installer.
It depends, if you're going to learn C/C++ or Python linux is by far the best choice, I would only go for windows if for some reason you'll be learning C# or Visual Basic/VBScript. Other languages like Java and JS will be just as usable on any platform. To be clear, you CAN learn C/C++ and Python just fine on windows and macOS, but linux makes them more comfortable to use (in particular C/C++ since most linux distributions come with a native compiler which is more up to date than what you can find on macOS and is simply not present in windows). As for the hardware, honestly I strongly recommend buying a refurbished thinkpad, specifically an x220 with the IPS screen. They have incredible keyboards (in my opinion superior to a macbook, blade or xps), outstanding build quality and are compatible with all major OSs (even MacOS with some minor tinkering). They are a bit less powerful than a more modern laptop but they are plenty fast for the needs of a programming student. And of course, they are much cheaper. If you insist on buying new, I'd go for the xps.
Everyone I know who is serious about programming/ who are a software dev is using macbook(pros) Im not even kidding here. Linux is great, but the learning curve is much higher than macOS. Let's be honest here, if you are just got into programming, which OS you are gonna use does not really matter. (If you are going to use UE4 or unity please get one with dedicated GPU) From my understanding Linux and macOS is both great for programming. Windows is meh/headache. My personal choice goes like this: macOS>Linux>Windows. If you want to use linux, that is great, get the official supported machine from dell. So that you wouldn't have to keep figuring out why the wifi is not working. If you want to use macOS, despite all the controversy you've heard online, like I said above, it is still the go to machine when it comes to programming. Just let this sink in for a moment. Also just to touch on the note of "it is hard to fix", I don't think your mac is gonna break down like some $400 machine. And apple's customer service is always top notch. Get apple care down the line and just have a peace of mind. If you want to get a machine with a powerful GPU, pick a solid windows one. Cheap, easy to fix, customizable. Otherwise, windows is pretty meh. Last but not least, consult your school and see what kind of laptop your course is recommending. I remembered our school put out a form just to let us know what kind of laptop we need to get. Some courses have to use macbook pro exclusively. While others are recommending against it. It is really important before you get one. Good luck!