Why do devs prefer mac over windows? Like I've heard about Linux and its pros, but what does mac offer?

As a prior Hackintosh user: It's less annoying than Windows as well. It is a BSD system, which is just another family of Unix OSes. Of course, it isn't pure anymore and has a lot of stuff added to it.

MacOS allows for greater flexibility in the UI and in terms of access to the system APIs, which allows for the creation of some absolutely killer apps: iterm, Alfred, witch, and divvy are completely indispensable parts of my workflow when I'm working on a Mac. A built-in, functional, compliant, standard command line means you don't have to resort to a hack or a bolted-on facsimile, as you do in Windows.

"devs" what is your sampling? Some devs are "anything but mac". I don't care for macs. I prefer Linux and Windows. I really liked Windows 7. Windows 10 is slowly growing on me. I hate the drama of Windows updates. Which is something Linux does not have.

I could see people being attracted to the *nix like features of Mac though. Apple earned a lot of respect from developers when they used a *nix like kernel.

@Demolishun I meant by "devs" that in lots of tutorial videos people are using mac.
Could you please explain what does *nix mean?
And if "hun" at the end of your name means hungary, akkor magyarul kérlek :D

*nix is synonymous for "Unix like". Unix is a trademarked name used by select vendors. So it is out of respect of that trademark that *nix is used when referring to an OS such as Linux. As Linux is not an official "Unix" OS. I don't think BSD is an official Unix either. It is "Unix like" though. I could be wrong though.

I couldn't get the domain name Demolition. So I settled for Demolishun.

At it's core, MacOS is still Unix.

Something rather similar to Linux, but with more software that isn't run through wine.

@Demolishun BSDstands for Berkley Software Distribution which is one (or was one) of the original UNIX distributions. So I'd call BSD a propper UNIX distribution. For Mac OSX, if I'm not wrong it's free BSD based, no idea if that is still a propper UNIX or not. However UNIX, free BSD as well as Linux implement the POSIX interface (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX).

To answer the original question: Mac and Linux are "related" most of the commandline stuff that works in Linux will work on Mac too. Mac has the advantage of being "stable" i.e. you won't break something when adjusting a config or pulling an update and it's required if you want to either debug a website on an iPhone or write iOS apps...

Disclaimer:
I bought one when I started solo consulting business to have full spectrum of development platforms. Before I was both heavy windows and linux user.

Generally:
- Unix shell commands (bash),
- network throttling,
- wifi monitor mode,
- time machine backup,
- fast search/run with good algorithm (cmd+space anything by typing 1-3 characters - beat that)
- nice working gui
- encrypted file system
- keychain for passwords
this is out of the box

Besides that from mid2014 macbook user perspective :
- stable performance ( I never reinstalled system and it’s working same all time )
- instant access ( I don’t shut down computer, just close/open lid )
- magsafe ( that saved my computer lots of times)
- good battery life after 4 years
- can compile to ios
- still receives os updates
- socks proxy on system level networking
- brew install anything developer related
- can access low level bluetooth, wifi to connect to stuff around and hack it
- sudo

Problems:
- price
- price for disk space ( this sucks )
- not extendable / replaceable parts
- new macbook got no magsafe
- slow for gaming( for me it’s advantage )
- no ethernet connector without extension ( macbook )
- networking stack is a bit clumsy in new os and can hang system when lots of things going on same time ( happened twice )

I don’t know if I buy new macbook if this will break, let’s hope it won’t.

@Wack This is what I know:

https://freebsd.org/doc/...

The question was about *nix anyway. *nix means "Unix like". Everything else is background.

@vane

If you like spotlight, then I cannot recommend Alfred enough.

@bahua Thanks, looks cool maybe will try it.

Nothing it is bad

@irene I second that.

Unix based, but better supported and more well known than Linux basically.

Out of the Box I would take Mac because it has a bash.
But for Performance work I would take Windows.

@vane The fact that there's no Ethernet port kills Mac for me and tightly.

entirely*

@Demolishun MacOS is certified UNIX.

https://opengroup.org/openbrand/...