Mac v. PC

If your focus is programming in databases and you're sticking with SQL I would recommend a PC. Windows 8.1 is a great OS - not the best by any means but it's better than 7 in my opinion. If you were focusing on web design, iOS development, video and photo editing that requires Adobe suite than obviously I would say Mac.

If you're coding in RoR, jQuery, javascript, html & CSS then it truly doesn't matter, but sticking with SQL for VisualStudio or Azure and .Net then you're better off with a PC.

Treehouse works great in any browser btw, never had an issue.

Mac wins for everything (sorry Justin).

I agree with Justin but I argue that their is some tradeoffs to consider. Ultimately I think it comes down to the languages you enjoy programming/have high fluency in. Both a Mac and a PC have similar computational functions however their operations can differ. The reason treehouse use macs is primarily for iPhone development. With that said, a Mac is a great buy for mobil and web development, but not so much enterprise development for things like Microsoft office, like Justin said. So I recommend a Mac if you're into Mobil/web dev because I have friends in the CS department who complain about objective PHP not working on the PC.

Thanks everyone. In this stage in my learning I am particularly interested in PHP and MySQL. It sounds like I may be able to get by on a PC, but having a Mac might not hold me back either.

When running parallels or VMFusion do you notice a lag in the Windows environment versus using an actual PC? I was thinking a Mac that is also running Windows in a virtual environment might be a good value. I am considering the newest 13" MacBook Pro with these specs:

2.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Turbo Boost up to 2.9GHz 4GB 1600MHz memory 128GB PCIe-based flash storage1

It's the $1299 model.

Macs are nice for sure, however they aren't particularly better at anything. However, there is some software only available on the Mac just like the software that is only available on a PC, iOS development being the most obvious.

There are many professional graphic designers that use each platform, Adobe products work well on both. There however some nice niche apps for web design on the Mac.

PC is fine for PHP and MySQL, you can set up a localserver to develop on for free using Wamp or Xampp (I'm sure there are other alternatives too).

It can be a little tricky getting them up and running (e.g. I originally couldn't get either to start correctly due to a port 80 conflict with Skype and on Windows 8 you may need to make some changes due to IPV6 compatibility).

I was able to find solutions to any issues I had relatively easily as people had usually asked the question already on stackoverflow. I'm sure there are similar problems you could/would run into and just as easily solve on a Mac.

I sometimes feel envious of Mac owners as there are lots apps I would like try out that are only available on Mac which I detailed in this thread. None of those I listed are directly related to PHP and MySQL.

Let's mix things up and go completely against the question and suggest a Linux distribution!

For coding, Windows and Mac won't really make a difference, I prefer using Windows because I have Visual Studio for c++ whilst that wouldn't work on a Mac (unless you run it natively with both) and I do play a few games which won't work on the Mac, not to mention the price of a Mac ;) but Mac has the advantage of Objective-C development. Both have there advantages though, a quick Google search I'm guessing would give you a list of what it does better then the other but I'm guessing most would be super biased

Linux is great though, gotta love Open Source operating systems which mostly are free and come with software already! You also have the Console which is pretty darn awesome. Linux is one of those things you can have alongside Windows & Mac

Get whichever you want. The only reason to choose one over the other is to fit your budget or if you want to do something that can only be done on one of the platforms. For instance, if you want to develop iOS apps and windows 8 apps it's far easier to install a VM on a mac than build a hackintosh. I've been using Macs since around 2002 so I've gotten over the whole, "macs are way better!" thing. I use a mac at home and windows at work. I use Adobe software both places. It's exactly the same experience.