Silicon Forest Developer/hacker. I write about Generative AI, DevOps, and Linux mostly.
Once held the world record for being the youngest person alive.
Entirely personal preference. If you want to develop IOS apps, yes you need a Mac (to do it legally).
If you want to be a web developer or any other kind of developer, no, you don't.
A few notes about price:
I purchased a Mac Mini back in 2012 and it's still chugging along today. You can certainly get better hardware for the same price. However keep in mind that Macs are 100% designed to work together as a unit. All of those parts are hand picked and put together with sturdy electronics, tested heavily to work with each other, and OSX is built especially for that hardware. You truly are getting a more reliable system.
Does this increased reliability percentage (whatever it may be) justify the cost? That's something only you can answer.
For the developer world I think the biggest competitor that can unseat Apple is System76. They provide that same tested solid ecosystem, only using Pop_OS! Linux. If you want that carefully crafted supported hardware feel at a better price, they're the way to go.
Personally I bought a Digital Storm system which is about half the cost of the equivalent Mac Pro and put my own Linux install on it and dialed it in. Though I did seriously consider a Mac Pro I got a lot more performance bang for my buck this way.
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Entirely personal preference. If you want to develop IOS apps, yes you need a Mac (to do it legally).
If you want to be a web developer or any other kind of developer, no, you don't.
A few notes about price:
I purchased a Mac Mini back in 2012 and it's still chugging along today. You can certainly get better hardware for the same price. However keep in mind that Macs are 100% designed to work together as a unit. All of those parts are hand picked and put together with sturdy electronics, tested heavily to work with each other, and OSX is built especially for that hardware. You truly are getting a more reliable system.
Does this increased reliability percentage (whatever it may be) justify the cost? That's something only you can answer.
For the developer world I think the biggest competitor that can unseat Apple is System76. They provide that same tested solid ecosystem, only using Pop_OS! Linux. If you want that carefully crafted supported hardware feel at a better price, they're the way to go.
Personally I bought a Digital Storm system which is about half the cost of the equivalent Mac Pro and put my own Linux install on it and dialed it in. Though I did seriously consider a Mac Pro I got a lot more performance bang for my buck this way.