The Undergraduate Advising Office often receives questions about what kind of computers our students have or should have in order to be well prepared for the CS program. Students are welcome to use the laptop or desktop of their choosing. The department does not have a required or preferred operating system.
Many Computer Science students utilize a Mac OS or Windows system that uses a virtual machine manager to run one operating system inside the other (such as VMware, VirtualBox, KVM, Parallels Desktop for Mac, etc.). VMware requires extra memory (to keep both Windows and Linux running at once for Linux-native users), so a good amount of memory in a laptop or desktop is important.
Most seats in rooms and seating areas where CS classes are held have electric outlets--however, not all faculty members allow the use of laptops in class.
In terms of software, UMD DIT allows students to purchase many software packages for a fraction of the retail cost. In the introductory CS classes students use the Eclipse development environment, for coding in Java. As students reach their junior/senior level classes some courses will expect that students' computers have the ability to run Linux (and thus the GNU C/C++ compiler). You may also find software through the University of Maryland's TERPWare
Minimum Hardware Specifications for Student Laptops:
*Please note that these are general recommendations in a rapidly evolving environment*
- CPU that is 2 years old or newer
- 16GB of RAM (If budget allows, having 32GB of memory is recommended for upper-level courses)
- 512GB Solid State Drive (SSD), more if economical to acquire
- Windows or MacOS
- Working USB-A / USB-C ports
- A battery that lasts at least 3 hours under light load and a reasonably long charging cable
- If students intend on taking courses on Computer Graphics, Game Development, or AI/Machine Learning, consider getting a Windows Laptop low-tier or mid-tier NVidia GPU
- Additionally it is recommended that students have a webcam and a headset with a microphone, which may be useful for online office hours available via zoom and virtual meetings with academic advisors.
The following devices are considered insufficient on their own for the work required in CS courses:
- Chromebooks or other "light" laptop that does not allow standard desktop applications to be installed
- Tablets with a primarily touch or stylus interfaces that similarly do not allow for standard desktop applications to be installed
These devices are useful for note-taking and some kinds of written assignments but do not allow full programming environments to be installed so should only be used to supplement a standard laptop or desktop.
For more information, please visit the DIT Recommended Computer Specifications Page or visit the IT Service Desk.