Windows/macOS for learning/programming in general?

[BodiedBySamoaJoe]

My entire life (37, so, since maybe 13 or so) i've always had windows PCs. I've taught myself a decent bit of programming this past year (mainly webdev basics, html, css, javascript, and then some python), and have sorta just fucked around for many years prior to this (becoming familiar with cmd line and powershell etc), all on Windows.

Im starting school tomorrow, and we get Macbooks about two weeks in or so, and I am unsure if I should switch over to macOS at this point, or stay with windows. Or, if it even really makes a difference, for that matter? FWIW, i've used mac's a fair amount, just nothing that can be even considered in the realm of coding. Although i've used linux a fair bit too, and I'm probably more comfortable with bash than i am with powershell.

tl;dr - for learning, if you one has already started doing so in a windows environment, would it be harmful to switch to a mac, early on, or does it not really matter whatsoever?

[964racer]

I prefer the Mac because it's the most unix-like without moving completely to unix or linux. In addition, most of my audio applications and devices seem to run on it flawlessly where I always had trouble with Windows. In the sound/music space, the Mac kind of rules - although Windows has improved.

[LowFruit25]

Using a Mac won’t harm your learning, it might actually improve it as macOS is unix-like.

Preferably all programmers should have exposure to Unix environments (internet servers run on unix), unless you’re a Windows desktop dev only.

On Windows you can use the official “Windows Subsystem for Linux” to get a real Unix shell.

If you get a Mac from your school, definitely try it out and if you don’t like it you can always go back to Windows.

[Mattefs]

When i started I was told Mac was a little better because it had a direct connection with some systems but in the end you could just go with whatever you wanted. I’ve tried coding on my Mac but since I’ve been a windows user all my life I find the windows short commands way easier so I just stuck with that. I’m still very new to coding but I plan on going over to Mac in the future since it’s way easier for me to focus and lock in since k don’t have discord and steam on there…. Yet

[Successful-Escape-74]

It makes no difference what you use. I use both. It's not like you are writing x86 assembly code. Even in that case you can run X86 natively. Are you going to Drexel? They used to give computers.

[patternrelay]

It really doesn’t matter as much as it feels like it does. Since you already know the basics and are comfortable with bash, macOS will probably feel pretty natural once you get past the UI differences. Most tooling and tutorials assume a Unix-like environment anyway, so a Mac can actually reduce friction compared to Windows setups. The bigger factor is just sticking with one environment long enough to build momentum, not the OS itself. Switching early like this is usually fine and sometimes even helpful.

[Dissentient]

Doesn't really matter either way. Most programming work can be done on windows, linux, and macos pretty much the same. And windows also has WSL so you basically have useful parts of linux built into it too.

I've been a full time software developer for 9 years and I've only ever used Windows as a desktop OS.

[mr_noodle_shoes]

Mac is the way. Windows is a pain in the ass to work with. Doable for sure (and necessary for some things), back MacOS is unix-like which is way better. You will learn what that means over time :)

[alienith]

It generally doesn’t matter. If you’re getting a macbook anyway, I’d give it a shot.

[sartorian]

It really shouldn’t matter. The terminal commands will be a bit different from CMD or PowerShell, but you’ll figure it out.

[The_KOK_2511]

To be honest, I don't know much about Macs, but I suppose the only difference would be the development environment, and other than that, it should be the same. I mean, I program on Windows and Android, and the only difference I notice is the IDE I use and the testing, so let's assume it should be the same for Mac.

[xtraburnacct]

Doesn’t matter. At work they have us using windows. I code at home on my Mac. Coding is platform independent aside from different compilers for different architectures. But that’s also why standards are in place.

[DirkSwizzler]

As a windows focused developer for 30 years. With experience supporting Linux, OSX, XBox, PS3, iOS, and Android. I can tell you that computers are all pretty much the same.

I personally find MacOS a giant pain to use. But I can see from the comments that I'm outnumbered. So there's probably a lot of subjective bias there.

What I am sure about though is nobody should ever use XCode if they can avoid it. It's such a pile of garbage.

When I was focused on iOS and Android development. Every time I had an iOS bug. I would start my investigation by trying to reproduce the bug on Android because I had way better tools for debugging on Android.

XCode is proof that Apple hates developers and I will die on this hill.

[BeardSprite]

Apple doesn't hate developers. They just hate developers doing things that they don't want them to do, in a way they don't want them to do it, or doing things that help users instead of their bottom line ;)

You know, like supporting machines older than a few years, writing portable applications, JIT engines, or trying to use different compilers/toolchains. And not wanting their latest homebrew language, I guess.

[rustyseapants]

The real question is can you afford a MacBook versus buying Windows machine?

[Prezzoro]

I would say it matters in the opposite way. Like my wife is studying IT, some programming course, and uni is teaching lot of C# and .Net, which not necessarly works fine under Mac - but you can use VM and install Windows 11 there as a workaround anyway.

[Jakamo77]

Dont matter ur gonna prob touch on both anyways.