If you run Linux on vanilla Intel ultrabook or Intel desktop/server hardware, it is not only blazing fast, but all the hardware works out of the box, too. I wr

If you run Linux on vanilla Intel ultrabook or Intel desktop/server hardware, it is not only blazing fast, but all the hardware works out of the box, too. I wrote about this in the context of Lenovo X1C laptop here: http://amontalenti.com/2017/09/01/lenovo-linux http://amontalenti.com/2017/09/01/lenovo-linux I also recently built a Linux desktop from ~$950 of commodity parts (including a pair of free GPUs a crypto friend donated to me after his startup died). I use it as a devserver and a GPU rig for playing with CUDA, PyTorch, and TensorFlow. Aside from the requirement of proprietary Nvidia drivers, this whole box works perfectly in Linux too, is blazing fast, and operates silently and with low power consumption. (The case itself is bulky, but it’s stationary.) I think an equivalent Mac would cost a 2-3x multiple and run less well for developer workloads. https://pcpartpicker.com/user/amontalenti/saved/r4rLJx https://pcpartpicker.com/user/amontalenti/saved/r4rLJx Say what you will about Linux, but if you choose your hardware carefully, it truly does “just work” these days. And you can’t beat having access to scriptable everything and source code everywhere. That said, I keep a Mac Mini around because there is some proprietary stuff you can’t avoid in the Apple ecosystem (e.g. XCode for iOS, Safari Debugger, Keynote/Pages, ...)