I’ve developed web software for 25 years, on Linux, Windows and Mac and there is no difference other than what you are personally comfortable with.
If a dev told me it was ‘easier’ to develop web on a Mac, I’d know they were inexperienced or just wanted a company paid Mac.
If a dev told me it was ‘easier’ to develop web on a Mac, I’d know they were inexperienced or just wanted a company paid Mac.
First of all, if they’re a good developer and they want a Mac. Fuck me just give them one yeah? Chances are they’ll look for a job somewhere else if you refuse, and you’ll spend how many hours interviewing / inducting / training potential candidates, rejecting most of them, and for what, to save a few hundred bucks?
Anyway you’re dead wrong about web development being the same on all three platforms. Docker in particular is a completely unique beast on all three, and Docker is currently the easiest way to do web development on all three platforms. It runs native on Linux, in WSL on Windows, and in a VM on a Mac.
Of the three, the Mac is by far the worst way to run Docker. But the Mac has other advantages, just to name one they have a proper debug environment for the iPhone version of Safari. I could name others, but the only one I’ll mention is the Apple Silicon chipsets are really nice.
Node alone is a massive pain in the ass on windows (then again it’s a pain everywhere), but specifically working in the terminal is much easier as someone familiar with UNIX terminals. Technically windows cmd is fine, but it doesn’t handle basically anything I need for day to day work.
I’ve developed on windows too and I generally try to do anything to avoid it. Consistently having issues installing packages makes dev harder imo. Python, Node, Multiple Java versions, adhoc sh scripting and a bunch of other things are just easier on unix.
It also depends on what you develop. Web based software isn’t web based software. I develop web based software as well and close to half of that is spent in a terminal. With WSL2 it became bearable under Windows. But still not as nice as on a Unix based device.
I know folks that never leave their IDE for their job. And they probably don’t care much about the underlying OS. But that isn’t what my job looks like or that of the folks around me. So if someone told me it doesn’t matter I know they’ve only seen a small bubble of what web development is or can be.
