You can learn to code on a lot of machines, and indeed I've used a lot of machines in the past few years. However, I'd assert that a Macbook Air is the ideal ma

You can learn to code on a lot of machines, and indeed I've used a lot of machines in the past few years. However, I'd assert that a Macbook Air is the ideal machine for development because: 1. Unlike most default configurations, the out-of-the-box OSX installation on a Macbook is a full Unix environment. Indeed, it's possible to do a lot with the Unix environment that comes preinstalled, and the rest is easy to install with Homebrew. 2. Unlike most systems where the default configuration has been overridden with i.e. Linux, an MBA with OSX just works. When my livelihood is at stake, I cannot be messing around with wireless drivers, trying to get whatever video conferencing to work, fixing misconfigured displays, trying to print, etc. I don't blame the open source community for this: I think that it's on the hardware/firmware manufacturers that they refuse to provide open source drivers that support Linux for their products. 3. There are other alternatives that fit 1 and 2 but they are all either underpowered for the price (a lot of laptops that come with Linux preinstalled) or much more expensive, for no real benefit to a developer (other Apple laptops besides the MBA). Yes, there are cheaper machines to code on, but what it comes down to is, you get what you pay for. I think that if you can afford it, the MBA is the best balance of needs for a developer. If money is more limited for you, your priorities would obviously be different. I also have to say, I hope this does change. I have no love for Apple. I want nothing more than to see an affordable laptop that is as good as the MBA and comes with free software preinstalled. I'm also worried that with Jobs dead, Apple has been making some very bad decisions with their product lines (bad for developers--arguably bad for Apple, too, but I don't care to argue that). While they haven't ruined the MBA yet, I don't believe the MBA is somehow immune. So it may be that the MBA will fall out of its current position.