I want start with python but I don’t know what operating system and tools to use. I have a 6 RAM icore3 180 GB hard disk Notebook laptop running Linux mint. I plan to save up to Buy a PC in the future but for I have to make due my old laptop
I am also wondering how does the programming market look like in terms of operating system. Does it matter which operating system you use? In terms of programming institutions (universities bootcamps, etc…), do each institutions have its own preference or does it let its student choose?
You don’t need any kind of special computer to learn programming. Find an introduction to programming course in Python that works for you and just go for it. Eventually a nice laptop will be useful but you’re not writing the kind of code that’s going to take hours to compile for the first couple of years anyway.
You’re overthinking this. You can almost always get by with whatever system you already have available, until you get a full job, at which point the job will probably provide you with a machine.
Linux on an old laptop is perfect for learning Python. You’re set for ages.
The OS won’t matter much in the beginning, though it helps that you’re already using Linux as you likely already have Python and GCC installed.
I don’t think you need a better PC than what you already have if the only goal is to learn programming, so I’d spend that money on something else.
I’d suggest you go through Harvard’s CS50 if you’ve never been exposed to computer science before: https://www.harvardonline.harvard.edu/course/cs50-introduction-computer-science . You can audit it for free, you don’t really need to pay for the certificate (which IMO doesn’t have much value at that level anyway).
Also, try to get into a computer science degree if you want to do that as a career, bootcamps and MOOCs are nice additions but will never replace a real degree.
I don’t think you need a better PC
This will hold true as long as OP doesn’t trash his IDE’s performance with too many plugins where even smaller project might run into performance issues if this mistake is made. But it doesn’t mean OP has to distract themselves with learning a modal TUI editor, although it’ll probably be beneficial for their productivity if they persevere and better to do that early than waste time hopping IDEs just for the sake of it. Tip for staying somewhat flexible if you still haven’t decided yet is using something like vim plugin to vscode or vice versa, trying Neovim “distributions” (see awesome Neovim for some examples) and switching to a more feature-rich, GUI-based IDE.
You’re on Linux Mint already, which is great. As others have said, Linux drives the world. Pretty much anything you write for a server will be running on Linux.
There’s a high likelihood that universities will either have a programming environment from before 2010 or before 2020. They are often slow to change. Bootcamps mostly use the tools that are most hip.
If you want to start with Python, I recommend and integrated development environment (IDE) like PyCharm. It handles a great deal for you and allows you to learn the low level stuff and python tooling at your own pace. Stuff like virtual environments, debugging with breakpoints, documentation,
If you’re interested in anything surrounding data science JupyterNotebook is great as it allows you to see the output of your code as you progress. That output can also be visual (graphs, images, variable values, etc.)
