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davekemper
2,276 PointsPreferred host OS to develop on?
I have noticed in a number of Treehouse videos the instructors are using Mac notebooks. Is this strictly a personal preference or are there advantages when developing the type of code taught on Treehouse? Please no rant on pro/anti OS. I'm looking for when one OS, (Windows, Apple, or Linux) is best. Preferably by those who have actively used all 3 platforms for coding. Developers tools? Functionality? I currently use both Windows and Linux and thinking about adding Mac so I can run all 3 OS's easily.
1 Answer
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse TeacherI'd say that for the most part, you can use whatever you feel comfortable with. With one glaring exception. Unfortunately, to develop iOS apps using Swift or ObjectiveC you must run Xcode. Apple just made Swift open source, but the Xcode IDE still isn't available on any other OS other than Mac OS X. Now, some people run a VM with Mac OS X installed on that. But the legality of that is in the grayish area, and it can be very slow (I've heard).
I've never tried this, but I've heard that some Mac users have had problems installing and running Microsoft's Visual Studio on their systems. But I never tried this on mine, so I can't say any more than that on that particular topic.
note: I've used all 3 
Hope this helps!
