I think you're getting the marketing of Apple products mixed up with why OS X is part of this "trend". OS X is popular among hackers because it's both a Unix-l

I think you're getting the marketing of Apple products mixed up with why OS X is part of this "trend". OS X is popular among hackers because it's both a Unix-like and polished/supported enough to use as a "serious" workstation (not that Linux or *BSD can't make a decent desktop, but most would rather spend time writing code than config files). It's really just about having an operating system that provides everything you need without having to worry about it, because as a programmer your time belongs with the applications. And when it comes to applications, you choose the right tool for the job (enter vim).