As my first year learning computer science, which OS do you recommend me?

Linux. If you want to learn how computers work.

Start by dualbooting your current one.

Try arch, and follow the wiki. Or I'd say try manjaro and get flamed by arch users? xD
Manjaro is nice for starting out on arch based linux I think

Fedora

Macos

Go for a Linux distro (Arch is the best for learning and getting all dev utils) or a mac (expensive unix system)

I would say set aside some time to research some distros.
If you want the windows version of Linux go Ubuntu it's basically plug and play.
If you want to get a feel for the system and how the internals of an os work install arch (may be difficult for a noob)
If you want try fedora or open suse both are different but have their benefits.
Play around. Check out distrowatch
What ever you do for your first Linux distro don't, and I repeat DO NOT install Gentoo as your first distro.
But as you can tell Linux will help you out in cs as you can use pretty much any language with it.
(I mean you could use BSD but who does that lolz)
Oh and be careful of dual booting you may get some sys errors or data corruption if windows gets ballzy.

@brukernavn32 @Llamatactica I have a Mac. Should I switch to Linux? Isn't Mac Unix based too?

I haven't used many distros (ubuntu, peppermint, mint), but my impression is that it's quite easy to test something and switch. Have a separate partition for /home and it should be ready to install a new distribution in /

The main differences for a noob are the package manager, and maybe if it's systemd... I like apt and ppa, that's why I use Ubuntu. Don't choose a distro based on the gui, most guis are easily installed on most distros.

Linux or macOS

A project or two on windows, then switch to linux , setting up the development environment on windows would be smooth and easy and the frustration of starting with linux won't kill you.

@hisetip depends. Both systems have bash and tools like that but technically speaking I believe Linux isn't 100% POSIX compatible.

Anyhow Mac is very much plug and play so you don't have to learn anything. If you set up something like Arch or Gentoo you have to install everything you want yourself (graphical interface, configure timezones, keyboard layouts, locales, ntp,....). That way you can really look at what components a modern Linux system has under the hood to make it work.

Pick which of these is more important:

1) Getting shit done.
2) The one you just like best.

And try a bunch of different systems. Sometimes you might like a system but practically wins out and you have to use something else.

And periodically try something different, just to challenge you, you may find something you like better or you may gain a new appreciation of why you like what you like.

@hisetip stick with mac, everything you need is there, install brew or another package manager to get everything you need.
Now, if you really want to learn how things work under the hood, you can always install arch linux in a virtual machine. Try it following the arch wiki. If you have a OS course, you'll need a VM anyway.

I'd say, research first.

Maybe you will be using software that's only available for Windows, but that does not stop you from dual booting. I had to attend a hackathon, i don't remember what was I going to do, but I remember I felt useless because the SDK's for the hardware only, yes, ONLY worked on Windows or macOS. Needless to say I had my laptop running ArchLinux.

I'm at my last year in CS, and we sometimes used software that only worked under Windows (I had a shitty laptop for the most of the time, so a VM of Windows wasn't an option).

Long story short, as long as you have memory and disk space, set up some VM's, check what seems useful for you and get a Dual boot, you know, just in case 😋

linux

Ubuntu...

I don't like Ubuntu, the shell (Unity) is terrible, lots of crappy programs, BUT, you still can do just as much with it (because it's a GNU OS), allowing you to get started quickly, and then customize.