The comments at the end of the WAN show today had me concerned a bit. Linus was surprised that an employee asked for a Mac. And a web developer, no less. I thought I'd jump on the forum to give my opinion.
I'm a web developer. Java, Ruby, Perl, Javascript, Sass... the full stack. My preferred IDE is anything JetBrains with the Vim plugin installed. I'm also a command line guy; zsh is my preferred shell.
I have developed full-time on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Comparing each machine I'll say, give me a Mac every time. I don't care if it has a slower processor. But before you write me off as a fanboy, here me out...
The work flow I use is much more tuned on a unix/linux machine. I'm able to be much more efficient in this environment. Some things are just easier to do on a *nix environment. So many developer tools are written for the *nix environment. And virtually all of them run on the Mac without any sort of emulation. Most of the main ones run on Windows. If I'm given a Windows machine, the first thing I do is install Chrome, the second is install Cygwin. So they will run, but often have limited compatibility. A big one is git. Git is heavily dependent on a *nix environment. Of course it runs on Windows (with a posix backend supporting it), but any advanced git user can tell you about problems that they've had while running on Windows.
You might say, "Why run on a Mac? Why not just use Linux? It's *nix and it's free, right?" Yes. Linux is free and will run on a PC, but it's also nice to not have to mess with driver compatibility on the machine you use every day. And there are still rendering problems with some of the modern window management systems in the Centos, Ubuntu, and Mint if you work on a hi-res monitor. Not a problem on a Mac.
I hope I'm not written off as a fan boy. I game on an i7-6700k and Nvidia 1080ti. It's one I built myself with hardline watercooling and UV luminescent cables that I sleeved. I'm an enthusiast like the rest of you. Which is why I watch the videos and why I'm on this forum. But I also think that Mac users are treated like 2nd rate citizens in the tech-tips-topia.
Linus, if your developer wants a Mac mini, then get him one! He'll be much a happier and better developer for it. And if you do, then don't hide it. You'll attract more talent if you're open to Mac developers.