[andrewheins]

For a full-time developer, I agree with the OP insofar as Linux and Mac are largely interchangeable. I develop on Linux and love it.

The biggest exception is for anyone involved in graphics, front-end development, or often works with graphic designers. The lack of native installation of Photoshop and Illustrator wrecks it.

That's what largely spurred my decision to buy a Mac. There's only one OS that currently offers a Unix CLI with native Adobe Creative Suite installation. If Adobe ever offers native CS on Linux, I'll be Linux for life.

[cageface]

Or anyone making music, or editing video. The commercial offerings in those areas still far outstrip anything available on Linux.

[jebblue]

Would that explain why Linux is used to develop so many special effects in Movies, not Windows?

[cageface]

Video editing and modeling/rendering effects are completely different toolchains. Tools for the former are still very crude compared to what's available on Mac/PC. Support for the latter is good on Linux, probably thanks in large part to the Unix legacy imparted to the effects industry by SGI.

But a lot of the Linux machines you see in VFX shops are just headless render nodes. People doing the creative work often use Macs or PCs.

[dextorious]

Those Linux machines are mostly used as render-farms, i.e dumb boxes to crunch numbers.

You'd have to get their Mac (or sometimes Windows) machine out of the special effects guys cold, dead, fingers.

That said, there are a few commercial offerings for 3D modeling work on Linux, but shockingly less than in Windows/Mac land.