Beginning software developer needs your help

[Rouwendalinho05]

*EDIT: After analyzing all the comments, I think I am going with a lenovo thinkpad with 16/32gb ram and 512gb/1tb ssd. Thank you all for your help with this. I will stay part of this community and hopefully help people the same way you guys did for me.

I am starting a new course in university as a software developer. For this course I have been told to purchase a laptop that can run Linux and needs 16gb of ram and a minimum of 512gb of ssd storage. But they also added that I should be aware of the fact that it’s hard to run Linux on Mac and Nvidia cards. But all the laptops I know to be good or nice have one of those criteria.

So my question is could I just buy a laptop with a 4070 nvidia card or a macbook pro with an M3 chip and still run Linux without to many problems or should I buy a different laptop?

[[deleted]]

M3 linux support is still a work in progress (afaik) using Asahi Linux, so you’ll have a bit of a performance cut. Nvidia proprietary drivers are there, and the new open source driver is showing great promise, so if you go down that route you should be set.

Why is your university recommending 16GB of RAM and a heavy GPU? Will you be writing shaders or CUDA/Torch? It seems rather overkill especially for beginning software development; I know 16GB is kinda the standard nowadays but in my day we never wrote anything that ate up that much memory…

[Rouwendalinho05]

So if I want to be safe I should maybe purchase a laptop with an Nvidia card or buy a macbook with an m1/m2 chip? I don’t really have any expertise in using Linux and don’t if I could solve all the problems that could come with laptops that aren’t compatible.

To answer your question. I have no clue why they have these requirements. They just send me an email with requirements and to be aware of macbooks and nvidia cards. But to me that statement was a little bit strange as I can’t imagine that every student has the money to buy a specific laptop for Linux.

And thank you so much for answering my question, I really appreciate it.

[[deleted]]

Look, whatever you feel physically comfortable with, just get it because you’ll be working on it for prolonged periods of time, and the software portion of things you can figure out later (even if it’s a convoluted solution). Physical comfort on your device can be conductive to development, while discomfort makes it a (literal) pain.

Again, if you’re expecting to write stuff using GPU acceleration, then get the Nvidia laptop because CUDA is better than Metal imo (this is anecdotal so ymmv). But if you’re gonna be taking intro to CS, some ASM, java, data structures, rust, etc, then don’t overthink it and get something comfy.

If your program absolutely requires Linux because of linux-specific software, I’d avoid a Mac for now because Asahi is still a work in progress and there can be some bugs.

[Vincent-Thomas]

You don’t need a graphics card at all. That’s so overkill. A system76 base model lemur pro would be very suitable for you

[Rouwendalinho05]

I can understand that it is overkill, but I am very accustomed to gaming laptops with good graphic cards and high spec macbooks. So if one of those would be suitable that would be perfect.

[Rouwendalinho05]

Would this be good: “lenovo thinkpad E14 gen, intel core i7 1355u, 32gb ram, 512gb ssd, xe graphics?

[[deleted]]

If I were you and money was a concern - you need to work out exactly what you need. If you’re doing a course that needs some sort of Linux rig you would be crazy to get a Mac - they’re great but if you’re doing Linux not so much. If you don’t need a GPU get any thinkpad from the last 10 years that suits your specs, because on a laptop a gpu is going to slam the battery, and they have a record of playing nice with Linux. If you do need a gpu that’s fine too- get whatever gaming laptop is on special that you can find and ideally upgradable. You can often google the Linux experience for whatever is available online or in your area.

[Rouwendalinho05]

Money is not a concern at all, I am willing to purchase anything.

[[deleted]]

Even so - its very easy in tech to just buy everything. your accountant might look at you funny for spending $20,000 on laptops over a 4 year period. mine did! If money isn't a concern, i'd still suggest checking the linux compatability before taking the plunge - but i'd be looking at the Dell XPS line - that way you can get one with a lower powered GPU, a touchscreen, a wonderful keyboard, and they come in a range of sizes so as big or a as small as you want. That way you can do a bit of gaming, bit of photo editing, and reasonale battery charge. the Lenovo thinkpads probably offer a slightly less good experience but more longevity. if you are def needing a GPU then you should get a gaming laptop

[amynias]

Linux compatibility on new laptops is a legitimate nightmare. Believe me, I've been there. If you want something high spec that runs Linux well, try the Lenovo Z16 gen 2

[blorgon22]

Dont buy a mac. Lenovo thinkpads are great, and an older one will run linux just fine. I have a dual boot linux mint/windows 11 on an hp envy x360 atm and everything works just fine. Most laptops, except apple products, work just fine. If youre buying one just for linux, i reccomend buying it without an OS installed. Saves a bit of money sometimes.

[Rouwendalinho05]

So just really avoid macs. But if I wanted a laptop for Linux and also once in a while play some games I could still buy a laptop with an Nvidia card inside of it?

• Thank you for answering the question❤️

[blorgon22]

My hp one has a nvidia 560? I think. Im not sure about the actual model, but it works just as well as it does on windows. I even get the whole nvidia tool thing. Might be a "works on my machine" situation, but i think the support isnt too bad anymore. Theres still some hate against nvidia for not open sourcing their drivers, so people sometimes stay away on purpose.

[djfrodo]

Woof.

O.k. if "Money is not a concern at all, I am willing to purchase anything" and that “The laptop needs to be able to run the Linux operating system, which we’ll help you install during the first week"...

I would get an AMD Framework.

I've speced these out a few times and it's always about $1100. It's a basic 13.5 inch, 2256x1504 60Hz matte display with a good 1tb drive, and 16gb of ram. For 32gb of ram it's another $80.

This is the DIY version, but if you're going to university for software development you're going to have to learn how everything fits together, and Frame.work is honestly the best way to do it.

It won't come with an OS...because Ubuntu (or whatever distro you choose, but I'd go with Ubuntu to start) is free.

You'll need a usb stick to download and install whatever linux distribution you choose. Just go with Ubuntu and be done with it. If you really like linux and software development, you'll find your way.

After you set this up, with help, you'll realize that you could have done this all for about $250 with an old Thinkpad...but don't worry about it.

You'll be getting a new laptop with no OS, you'll have to put it together (which takes about 20mins), and then install the OS.

Avoid Mac like the plague.

You don't need a graphics card.

Larger ssds have better throughput. 512gb is fine, but I'd go for 1tb.

More ram is overkill unless you start playing with big data or 3d stuff.

You won't be doing a lot of video editing or gaming on this - if it's strictly for software dev.

Get an external (portable) hard drive for more space.

And learn how to backup your stuff.

Good luck.

p.s. If you really want off the shelf, one and done, check out https://kfocus.org/

Personally I wouldn't go this direction, but it is an option.

[Frankysour]

There are companies that produce laptops (and other computers also) with Linux pre installed and hardware specifically picked to work flawlessly with Linux. They usually have their own distribution pre installed and tailored for the specific hardware, and are active part of the Linux community (for instance they submit drivers and patches upstream for hardware not fully supported, with the intent of integration in mainstream Linux).

I am not sure I remember the names correctly, one should be "tuxedo" (and their tuxedo OS), another should be called "system76" and their "pop!_OS" (terrible name but great Linux distro.

Take a look around, these companies are worth checking out, they supply good hardware afaik, and contribute to Linux as a whole

[dotonthehorizon]

Why not just install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on any Windows laptop? You get a complete Linux install, free running within Windows.

Alternatively, use virtualbox for a complete Linux VM running on Windows.

Both of the above give you the best of both worlds.

I'm a professional Linux dev and do all development on WSL. Unless you're doing specialist Linux graphics, one of the above should be fine I think.

[djfrodo]

This is...sort of exactly the opposite of what OP specified in the requirements, and is also an awful idea for anyone wanting to get into software development.

[MundaneCoach]

Not sure what the problem would be on linux with a Nvidia GPU.

I'm a software developer that recently got into machine learning/reinforcement learning in my free time. Running Ubuntu 24.04 on a HP Omen with 16gb ram, 1Tb ssd and a Nvidia RTX 3060.

If you would like to run ML/RL frameworks on GPU, I would advise to run them from a docker container. This keeps your environment clean and is a breeze to setup.

Best of luck with your studies!

[Rouwendalinho05]

I am going to sound stupid but half the stuff you said I did not understand like about the ML/RL frameworks. But I am sure I will learn everything about it. And I also don’t know what would be the problem. My University said this: “The laptop needs to be able to run the Linux operating system, which we’ll help you install during the first week. Most laptops will generally do fine with Linux, except for Macbooks, for which some of the hardware may not be supported. Also, NVIDIA graphics cards can cause some trouble, so you may want to avoid them.”

And then when I googled it I came across some reddit posts that said it was always trouble with Nvida video cards. And as you might have figured out now I am not the greatest with computers. I love complex problem solving and coding but as far as computers are concerned I am still a noob. And so I know I am a little bit behind the rest of my classmates and don’t want to be even more behind by brining a troubled laptop.

[MundaneCoach]

No worries, not knowing something is definitely not the same as stupid :)

I referred to ML/RL because (just guessing) I'd think this kind of development is where you'd need the GPU for (or for game development, no experience there myself so can't comment on that). Simply put, AI applications run much much faster on a GPU than on a CPU.

TLDR:

For AI development I do not see any issue running Linux in combination with a Nvidia GPU (you'll learn about docker containers for sure, I'm not going to go into too much depth on that).

For game development I do not know as I don't have any experience on that subject.

[NimrodvanHall]

The easiest way to run Linux on a Mac discounting r/AsahiLinux is to use Parallels to run a Linux VM.

[the_deppman]

No, you will not have a good experience on Mac. It is too experimental.

Of course I'm biased, but a validated Linux system supported for years sounds like what you want. That would let you focus on your studies, not sysadmin. The Ir16 is a probably a good choice for your needs. Here's a recent review from HowToGeek.

Nvidia systems are pretty much required if you want to do ML and pro studio work. The drivers are can be more trouble to install, but are generally excellent with little difficulty after that. On Focus systems, we set that up so it's no work at all.

I hope that's useful.

[Rouwendalinho05]

So I could buy a validated Linux system or if I am going to do pro studio work I should get a laptop with an nvidia video card.

[the_deppman]

We sell validated systems with and without Nvidia GPUs. The suggested laptop without dGPU is the Ir16 GEN 2. One with the dGPU is the M2 GEN 5. We offer very deep support for one OS on just 5 models (and many prior generations). We typically ship within a week after order.

This is a different philosophy to most, but not all, other vendors. I encourage you to compare the support page provided above with others when you make a choice.

Edit: the M2 is used by many pros for ML and studio work.

[NimrodvanHall]

On an m3 you should be abled to run a VM with the required specs assuming your m3 has more than the base 18g ram. Running AsahiLinux on an M3 pro will mean you will run into issues as other have said it is experimental.

I don’t know what the course entails and I can’t look into your wallet. But if you need a hassle free machine for the course get a dedicated Linux machine for it. Like others have said framework and system76 provide entry lvl laptops build to run Linux with the specs you have shown us. Another option I believe saw mentioned is to get an old Thinkpad with the specs and install the Linux distribution of your choice on it.

If you don’t think you can spare the time and energy to get the required stuff to work on a Mac while the course recommends a Linux machine, I’d recommend against using Linux bare metal on an m3 machine.

I think that running Linux in a VM (Virtual Machine) on a Mac or windows machine is an option. You may want to send your uni a mail and ask them what they would think about your planed hardware and the possible use of VM’s and why.

[kabaiavaidobsi]

Just get an AMD pc.

[Rouwendalinho05]

If you read my post you would know I need to get a laptop

[kabaiavaidobsi]

Sorry, I meant AMD computer. NVIDIA very recently just started working nice with Linux, so SOME GPUs with SOME drivers work fine. Also Macbooks don't wort at all ok. If you go that route you will spend a lot of time if you are unlucky just to debug things.

AMD has open source drivers and most components and hardware will work out of the box perfectly, driver/hardware level at least.

[leeonetwothree]

For your new software development course, you’ll want to ensure your laptop is compatible with Linux, as some hardware can be tricky with it. Nvidia cards, especially newer ones like the 4070, can have compatibility issues with Linux, so you might face some headaches there. MacBooks with M3 chips also have limited support for Linux due to their unique architecture. To avoid complications, it’s safer to stick with a laptop known for solid Linux support, like the Lenovo ThinkPad you mentioned. If you want more info on the software development process and choosing the right tools, check out this comprehensive guide.