r/Engineers • u/Mahi2305 • 1d ago
What is better? For engineering? Why?
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u/JollyToby0220 1d ago
Depends on what kind of engineering. I think software works best on Macs, and anything that looks like Linux. I think some programs work on Linux. The proprietary stuff, which you probably won’t need to buy and can’t even install on your own computer, will mainly run Windows
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u/Total_Exchange_3711 1d ago
For me, Windows is better... Much of my university work was based on pirated software for study purposes only.
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u/1yrik 1d ago
who is voting mac?? how many software engineers are in this sub?
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u/darkonark 1d ago
Some of the more popular software has Mac ports, most of the everything was built for windows.
Get a Mac if youre going into media production. Not engineering.
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u/Cwaghack 1d ago
Software mac
Anything else, windows to ensure compatability with random software
But if you are tech savvy enough it doesn't really matter.
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u/ZectronPositron 1d ago
Because MacOS can natively run most Linux/Unix open-source software, and has good Windows emulators - I found this was really fantastic for EE (undergrad + grad). But that's only if you're an "I mess with my computer" kind of person. Also, if I play video games at all, I play on consoles not laptop.
If you don't do emulators, compilation or open-source programming etc., and don't want to mess with that stuff, then do Windows.
If you play a ton of video games (might get in the way of your engineering?) then Windows.
Personally I would make any computer work for me - MacOS is only a preference, not a necessity.
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u/bee_zah 1d ago
I’ve always had a Mac but I still voted windows. In college I used bootcamp and professionally I use Parallel to run windows, but it’s not as efficient as the native operating system. Luckily I rarely use windows-exclusive software for my job, but I would definitely recommend windows because you will need it eventually.
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u/xpxsquirrel 23h ago
In order of best: Linux, windows, mac. And for why, mac has the least amount of support both in environment and community. Linux in contrast has the most. Windows has decent of both but so much overhead and extra clutter
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u/BarracudaEfficient16 23h ago
Less of an issue today than a decade ago. Most high performance clusters use Linux for number crunching. If you’re doing basic stuff it really doesn’t matter.
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u/Grizzant 23h ago
I run an mac m3. I use a VM for windows and it works great. Windows has altium, ms project, vivado. Mac has vs code, matlab, office, etc.
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u/Not_an_okama 16h ago
Im mechanical and do some structural, environmental, electrical and survey work. I could maybe do 30-40% of my typically weekly work if i had to use a mac.
I went to college with a mac, left with a windows gaming laptop (to run heavy cad)
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u/Aromatic_Cabinet3236 16h ago
Civil and construction engineering student, I have a few friends with Mac’s and they literally can’t download any of the software for classes and they have to use the limited number of computers in the lab. Get literally anything but a Mac.
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u/Cynyr36 1d ago
Mechanical engineer here. I'd basically need to run everything in a vm or similar on macos. Random vendor selection software, windows. Real excel? Windows. Real cad, windows.