You obviously have never really used a Mac. My Mac Pro workstation with Xeon processor runs nine different Operating Systems, sometimes simultaneously. . . including UNIX (the Mac IS a UNIX based computer), macOS 13 High Sierra, iOS 11, Microsoft Windows 10, Microsoft Windows 8.1, and Microsoft Windows 7, and three different flavors of Linux. . . all operating in windows of the macOS system as hardware virtual machines. In addition I have software emulations of AmigaOS, AtariOS, and Commodore C=64/128, plus a very efficient OS called THEOS that used to run all the workstations in our office, all of which run quite well. A Mac can run far more software than any Windows box. . . Because it is natively UNIX, and designed from the ground up to be multi-user and multi-OS.
The Mac is by no means a "walled garden," in either hardware or software. That’s a myth. It has not been for almost two decades.
I’m seriously considering upgrading to this when it comes out next month.
iMac Pro Workstation:
You still think Apple is a non-starter in Workstations?
Out of necessity, I’ve developed on the iMac and used production graphics tools. I didn’t hate it, but it’s not a goto platform for me. Once the finances permit, I’ll likely get a new iMac for dev but not pleasure. Fewer cores, high clock, 64GB, 2TB SSD/PCIe, and of course the beautiful 27” display. I confess, the recent iMacs are purty machines.
For the linux-related requirements, I have a variety of distros on Xen hypervisors. So while the iMac is cool in a BSD way, it doesn’t provide a seamless linux-like domain — guest VMs notwithstanding.
My workstations must be internally accessible. I can’t be breaking display seals to change out components. I looked at the server platforms, but they’re pricy for the given hardware. Would be nice if OS X could be hosted on arbitrary metal, or as a guest VM.