I see many programming tutorials with macs computer. Why is that?
First because it runs on Unix, secondly because they get all the apps they need on it (you don’t have Ps on Linux for example).
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It’s a cultural thing.
There is, as @Oxyrus said, the fact that it’s Unix-based means that the terminal is very comfortable for people who are also using Linux servers (although Windows 10 now supports a Linux bash shell, so it will be interesting to see where that leads us).
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I’ve tried to avoid macs for years, I don’t really agree with the idea behind apple as they try to make closed systems and they even force me to use an american layout keyboard (Alt-3 for #!?!?!?)
I think the reason most web developers use macs are:
- Their company uses it, I think this is because macs are quite reliable, mostly fast and they don’t create loads of different versions, the end of “it works on my machine”
- it’s trendy
- the new style of web programming is using the MEAN stack (mongo, express, Angular, Node) running on a linux machine. I’m not sure if you’ve tried installing these on a windows box, it’s nowhere near as easy.
I’ve reluctantly converted 
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Maybe because if a game or app says it will run on a MAC, it will.
On a PC the requirements can be a list and you may not always feel confident an app will run even after checking the required hardware list.
I use a pc/laptop - I think it would be nice to have a reference chart that anyone could check to see if a cpu or gpu is good enough for a particular game.
Does anyone know of a website that offers this in a easy to use format?
Thank you,
Dave
AD5JO
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Short, snarky version: Windows sucks, and they’re too lazy to install and learn to use Linux.
This is why Docker, VMWare, Vagrant, and a bunch of other tools are so popular. Everyone needs to write code to deploy on Linux, but use a different OS for their development.
Longer version:
Windows really is a comparably terrible environment for (non-Microsoft) programmers. In addition to all its security issues, it’s just a completely different architecture compared to Linux (on which everything is deployed). However, Linux doesn’t have the hardware support that Mac does. So Mac is a happy medium. Get a Mac and you can buy all kinds of accessories and they’ll “just work.” On Linux, you can probably get all that same stuff to work, but it’s so much trouble it just might not be worth it. Linux isn’t to blame for this – hardware manufacturers are. They don’t support Linux, so they force people to stay on Windows, then they say they don’t support Linux because “nobody’s using it.” It’s circular logic.
Having said that, I switched about five years ago from all-Mac to all-Linux for my development, because it was so much easier to get my development stack up and running. I’m just used to it now, and I’m certainly no hardcore Linux expert.
I did get a MacBook Air a couple of years ago to try it out (things like Go2Meeting don’t support Linux), and was completely frustrated by the lack of ability to customize how my desktop worked. For example, if you have multiple desktops (workspaces, whatever), you used to be able to arrange them in a grid on the Mac, so you could move up, right, left, and down to get to a workspace. Now they’re all laid out in a line, so if you want to jump from the first to the last, you have to scroll through all of the others. That’s just one example of the many ways a Mac user is locked into a single way of doing things.
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I use a macbook because it’s virtually indestructible, has a very sharp display i can look at all day without headaches, a super-precise trackpad, and a long battery life, all while staying rather lightweight. All these factors together were worth paying an admittedly exorbitant premium for.
The people screaming the loudest about what “real programmers” use are always the ones with the least to offer in terms of useful advice.
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I’m a long term user of Dell and it’s pretty much reliable. I hate Mac and don’t see what’s all the fuss about it. Here is a good set of programming laptops on budget you can check it out. At $500 they does the job. http://www.kodingmadesimple.com/2016/11/top-10-best-laptops-for-programming-coding-developers.html
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IMNSHO because it’s trendy hipster garbage. it has a terminal that is loads better than windows but if you’re deploying to linux (and you probably are) you are still not on the same platform you are deploying to. They have nice screens but so do many other laptops. They have ok battery life but other laptops have way better battery life. Their case sensitivity and many other features drive me nuts and you need lots of workarounds to get stuff done, brew and xcode are the first ones that come to mind. I was forced to use one at my last job and hated it. Ubuntu or whatever linux distro that tickles you would be loads better for a developer,… again IMNSHO. take w/ salt.
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This will be a never ending thread… 
As for me, I use a Mac…
No, not exactly. I’m on a PC running OSX, hooked up to (3) Apple cinema displays.
No, I’m using a MacPro tower case, running OSX with PC hardware guts.
No, it’s not PC hardware guts because It’s the same Intel chips, and Texas Instrument chips, just like a real iMac.
Wait… I’m on a 4790K Intel chip, overclocked at 4.6Ghz, with 32GB of RAM, nVidia 970 4GB video.
Wait No iMac has got that spec.
I use OSX.
But I also use Windows on a VM, to run Visual Studio on some client projects that use ASP.NET
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I really dislike Apple.
I don’t dislike it on a technical level, i never used it, i dislike it on a political level.
First i don’t want to be dependent of company which restrain the “technical liberty” of its customers, just to be more smoothy or make more money.
Second i don’t want to have anything to do with a company with so much ethical wrongdoing on its hands.
So i just use linux, without even having to think what is best on a technical level.
I will still buy from companies i dislike if i have “no choice” (for hardware by example), it isn’t about purity.
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Mostly because it runs on Unix, which helps you detect errors easily so it’s pretty useful. I recommend using mac also. Of course you can always try using a program to help you such as checkamrx and others but it’s you choice.
Good luck!
Michael.
The best software for web development exists on Mac OS X. It is believed that the best developers are on Macs, so they built the best tools on Macs for Macs. Tools such as TextMate and more.
Experience. Many also cite their personal experiences with the machine to be a deciding factor. Several use words such as beautiful, elegant, and pleasant to describe the user experience, and compare this to Windows which is considered to be slow, complex, and unreliable in comparison.
Unification. Due to Apple license restrictions, Mac OS X is the only platform that allows you to develop for any platform - web, Microsoft Windows (through virtual machine, or a dual boot), iOS, Mac, Unix & Linux. Also, unification in the sense that most common development platforms that run on Mac/Unix/Linux are either available or easy to install on the Mac.
It is way overpriced and under powered but when you laptop displays a light up apple logo you feel like a better developer kinda like a placebo. I would rather use the cash on better hardware and use linux or dual boot windows for the proprietary stuff or make a hackintosh in that order.
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Saying devs like Macs because it’s Unix based so you don’t have to VM environments is absolute nonsense. Fine for a lonewolf freelancer maybe, but any dev team worth it’s salt is running matching virtual environments or containers on their dev machines that match stage and production as closely as possible.
Others have suggested because they’re trendy, and they’ve hit the nail on the head. Silicon Valley is rife with hipster culture. Outsiders looking in are willing to pay a pretty penny to feel like they’re hip developers. Everyone wants to feel like they’re the next Jobs I guess…
I use a Mac because of its ergonomic design. It literally takes less meters with a mouse or in my case a trackpad than on a Windows machine to do my job. Distances between buttons are shorter, no scrolling in the configuration screen and so on. My muscles ache after half an hour on a Windows machine.
And the trackpad itself makes all the difference. It not only works well, but it’s so light and easy to use that I never missed my mouse for one second after leaving Windows.
Apart from that the Mac has many built-in features for people with disabilities which I use occasionally.
And about those hipsters: I’m a woman in my fifties, I couldn’t care less about feeling like them. That could have been a reason back when I was in my twenties or so, but that’s a long time ago. 
I guess there are many reasons why people prefer a Mac, Linux or Windows. Let’s not judge them, but accept that there are differences between people and therefore between developers.
- Windows machines are offered with the pill-style keyboard too.
- The absence of a proper Delete key is infuriating.
- Windows has no lack of accessibility features.
I’m not saying Macs aren’t for everyone, but there’s no real advantage to them as a developer.
I don’t think you can judge for others if there are real advantages for them to use a certain machine or not.
Let them judge for themselves. If you use Windows, fine, nothing wrong with that, as there is nothing wrong with using Linux or MacOS.
I don’t see what you mean with a “pill-style keyboard”. I use a normal Apple keyboard or the one on my MacBook. Works fine for me. I use voice control / dictation as an extra feature.
I missed the delete key in the first few weeks, but then I sort of forgot about it, which I realised now that you mentioned that key.
And Windows does have accessibility features, but for me they aren’t near as good than the ones on my Mac. I own a modern Windows machine for testing and some games. Skyrim or Banished won’t work on a Mac. So I use Windows sometimes.
Maybe others prefer Windows for accessibility, I don’t know. I only know what works for me.
And as a developer I like to work on this machine. She does an excellent job for me.
I’ve been writing code for 22 years and teach web development…so I think I DO have some insight. You may find the keyboards more comfortable, but that is not an advantage for developers, that’s a personal preference. I’m sure your Mac does get the job done…but it doesn’t do it any better than a Windows based laptop at a fraction of the price.
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I switched from Windows 10 to Linux and now to OS X and I would say that both Linux and OS X are very alike. Macs have a much better hardware support for it’s components which makes it an extremely pleasant experience to work with. It’s not only technical details that matters. Never ever in my career Mac has failed me. Windows has. Linux has. And it’s a 5 year old one, runs blazing fast, gets everything done.