System requirements for Android Studio
The system requirements for Android Studio for various operating systems are listed in the following table:
Windows |
OS X |
Linux |
---|---|---|
Microsoft Windows 8/7/Vista/2003 (32 or 64 bit) |
Mac OS X 10.8.5 or higher, up to 10.9 (Mavericks) |
GNOME or KDE or Unity desktop |
2 GB RAM minimum, 4 GB RAM recommended |
2 GB RAM minimum, 4 GB RAM recommended |
2 GB RAM minimum, 4 GB RAM recommended |
400 MB hard disk space plus at least 1 GB for Android SDK, emulator system images, and caches |
400 MB hard disk space plus at least 1 GB for Android SDK, emulator system images, and caches |
400 MB hard disk space plus at least 1 GB for Android SDK, emulator system images, and caches |
Java Development Kit (JDK) 7 |
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 Java Development Kit (JDK) 7 |
Oracle Java Development Kit (JDK) 7 |
Optional for accelerated emulator: Intel processor with support for Intel VT-x, Intel EM64T (Intel 64), and Execute Disable (XD) Bit functionality |
Optional for accelerated emulator: Intel processor with support for Intel VT-x, Intel EM64T (Intel 64), and Execute Disable (XD) Bit functionality |
GNU C Library (glibc) 2.11 or later |
Eclipse
Eclipse has been one of the most popular IDEs among Android developers since its inception. Eclipse was the first officially supported IDE and it is still thriving today. Eclipse is a general purpose IDE; with standalone Eclipse, it's hard to develop anything. It has specialized plugins for almost everything and it has an awesome bundle for Android called the Android Developer Tools (ADT) plugin, which enables Eclipse for Android application development. The following screenshot shows the Eclipse interface:
Choosing one IDE over another
Android Studio IDE needs more RAM, while Eclipse is lightweight. Android Studio provides more features than Eclipse, and it is very easy to add dependencies such as the Google Play services library in Android Studio. While the choice depends on you, and my personal favorite is Android Studio, Eclipse can work well with 2 GB of RAM. The rest of the system requirements are the same as Android Studio.
Note
Google recommends us to use the official Android Studio IDE and switch from Eclipse to Android Studio, since it will receive the latest updates.