Trying to get my bearings in the computer world. What kinda computer would a programmer buy? I can't picture him buying a basic Compaq with windows so I thought I'd ask my favorite computer geeks for their input.

A Macintosh.

Seriously. Development tools come for free, and you can program in a wide range of languages, including C, C++, Objective-C, Ruby, Perl, Java, Pascal, assembly, and so on. All the development software is professional-grade, industry-standard (a lot of it is built around gcc/g++, which are used on pretty much everything but Windows systems—and even occasionally on Windows), and cost-free. Plus the development environment is top-notch, and allows you to develop not only desktop software, but in the programming environment used in higher-end machines (i.e. Unix).

Aside from that, if you go with Windows (or something like Linux or Unix), it doesn't really matter what machine you use. The development tools and languages will mostly be the same, no matter what the underlying hardware is. If you're working in Windows, you'll probably be using C++, which isn't hardware-dependent.

(By the way, I'm not talking out my ass here—I'm a comp sci student, and I also write software for Mac OS X and Unix/Linux-based systems, and have some experience writing Windows software.)

My cousin works for some company, and his boss said that whoever volunteers to program their current "activity" will get the computer a programmer deserves. So he volunteered my cousin since no one would, and my cousin got a free Dell XPS Laptop with all the fixings.

f macs. they are really really bad. and very prone to viruses. a computer a porgrammer would buy would probably include dual core AMD processors and a nice video card. and lots and lots of ram and HD space. and run windows

I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but a Macintosh is not prone to viruses. In fact, there are two viruses in the wild for Mac OS X. 2 << 100,000, which is about the number of known viruses for Windows. So Windows is the OS with security concerns, not Mac OS X.

Additionally, a programmer would not necessarily use Windows. They'd use the appropriate tool for the job, just like any other craftsman. If you're doing desktop stuff or PC gaming, maybe you'd use Windows. If you're doing any high-end stuff, you'd likely not use Windows--you'd probably use Unix or a Unix variant. And dual-core AMD processors with a nice video card for programming? Nah. You're thinking of a gaming machine. You don't need that kind of power for programming at all.

yea i was thinking of going to college for programming or computer engineering. but i've never worked on a mac before only windows....so i have no clue. the only language i know is java.

Well, no worries! Java is available on nearly every computing platform.

my sister's boyfriend is a computer geek. he has a PowerBook. but that, along with the iBook, was replaced with the Mc Book (and the MacBook Pro). i think.
is apple still selling PowerBooks?

Refurbished ones, but the product line has been ended, so there will be no new PowerBooks.

MacBook Pro is pretty much the same thing, of course, but with an Intel processor.