> Or not to build for Linux because you have to buy a linux machine.

Linux runs everywhere on anything. If you cannot find a place to run it for free, you aren't looking particularly hard.

You don't have to buy Microsoft hardware to run Windows development tools

But you do need to buy their software (or you did, until very recently), at least their operating system. In this case, Apple only sells their software in combination with hardware.

$500 for a Mac (with a license to all their "free" software) is not terribly far from $200 for Windows 8 Pro.

> $500 for a Mac (with a license to all their "free" software) is not terribly far from $200 for Windows 8 Pro.

Amazon: Windows 8.1 OEM, $89.99

Amazon: Windows 8.1, $99.97

Amazon: Windows 8.1 Pro, $174.99

Windows 8.1 Pro provides no tools you really need for software development[0][1] (although client hyper-v is nice), you can develop on the standard edition of 8.1 just fine.

[0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/products-... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8_editions

Incorrect on all counts - You have never needed to buy Microsoft's software in order to build something for Windows. There have always been free options from Microsoft and others.

And you don't need to pay for Windows either because Microsoft has given away 6 month trials of every version of Windows since forever. (And they give you an option to re-up the trial time without reinstalling so you can get like a year out of a free trial of Windows no problem.