Comment Get a Mac (Score 1) 385
I am not a fan of the Mac, even though I am on my third one. But it is a far cry better than a Windows machine. And for programming it is excellent, because it is Unix. I use my Mac for all of my "devops" programming. And if she needs to do some heavy duty computation, she will want to run that in AWS or somewhere anyway. The problem with Linux as a general purpose laptop is that you are limited in all of the mainstream things. I assume that she does not do physics all day and all night: so if she wants to, say, watch Netflix, she will have a much easier time with a Mac. Most things can be done with Linux, but it requires research and effort. If she were studying computer science I would say she should go with Linux, but she is studying physics, so she will not want to waste her time on getting Linux to serve up a movie or exasperating over the fact that her Open Office document looks different when someone loads it on a PC, since the Mac supports MS Office. Her time is better spent thinking about gravitational waves. Get her a Mac, and she can do anything she needs to do with minimum hassle. Problem solved. Also, Macs are pretty durable due to the metal case.