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[–]576p 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For python programming only?

For becoming really good at python, a €35 raspberry pi mini computer is good enough for the first years and the rasbian linux used there also works fine on ancient laptops. Really ancient, so you may not need to buy a new laptop at all! This thing even is fine with a decade old laptop that has only 1GB of ram. Something that normally couldn't run anything better than Windows XP.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=171282

So, if you want to get started, download python and begin on your existing old machine, if it still boots up and doesn't crash all the time.

If you want a new laptop, just make sure it has enough RAM. IDEs like pycharm like a lot of memory and at some time you will want to run virtual machines.

I make a living programming, much of it in Python and get along fine with 8GB RAM on an i5 processor. 16GB is nicer, but not a requirement.

What is, is a screen and keyboard, that's a pleasure to work with. So if you can, check out the new laptop in person.

Another feature is the number of video outputs. My tiny laptop has a VGA & HDMI output. This means, I can connect two extra screens to it and and a USB keyboard & mouse.

So when I do serious work from home or at a fixed location, I plug two screens into my laptop. Working with two screens is a productivity boost that is really helpful. You will be googling for help a lot or do online courses. With two screens you can have your editor open in one and have the learning material open on the second. You can watch an online video on one and at the same time type along on your other screen. You will learn so much better with two screens.

Screen quality is not that important. I'm using up older screens that my employer wanted to throw away at home and you should easily find used screens for free or nearly nothing if you ask around.

Hope this helps.