willpewitt

For me its Java with Spring or maybe something like Micronaut. Its what I'm most familiar with. Plus the massive Java ecosystem means I can probably find a library to do just about anything.

Database would be MySQL or Postgres. The application containers would run on something like Google Cloud Run, other serverless options are available.

In recent years TikTok comes to mind as a new company that seems to have gotten very popular very quickly.

I got a System 76 Oryx Pro. It's not as sexy as the mac but at the time Macbooks could not have 32 GB of ram, which was a major disappointment for me. Pop Os is great, its pretty much for Ubuntu with some tweaks.

Thermals are generally not a issue but sometimes the fans can be a little noisey. And of course due to the very beefy hardware and linux power management not being the most advanced battery life is at most 3 hours in my experience.

But if performance is important I would definitely recommend picking one up.

Linux, the whole software philosophy is quite pure.

It depends, is your goal to land a job? If so that is totally possible. Look in your area (somewhere like indeed.com) and see what is in demand. In most areas Java or JavaScript are both good options as both are in demand and fairly easy to pick up. Based on what language you learn you will need to lean a accompanying framework and other skills needed such as build tools, sql, general design patterns, etc.

The biggest piece of advice I can give is too just fully dive into learning. Program every day and read every day. It is going to be uncomfortable because a lot of concepts dont come easy to learn and it can be very intimidating.

Another huge help would be to find a mentor, when I started programming I had someone to give the a path to follow, read these books, learn this , learn that etc.. Which gave me a huge boost among my piers. Also, you will not get some concepts right away, and thats expected. Someone who has run into those problems can shine a light and explain it to you.

Programming and computer science are diffrent. Learn to program first then a little later pick up a computer science book. And that can be a pretty controversial thing to say especially here. The truth is that most junior level positions just want someone who is reasonably competent and will continue to learn.