Why do developers/software engineers prefer Mac and Linux even though their user interfaces are substandard to Windows?

You call it a good thing that each software has its menu bar? Would it be a good thing if every brand of car had its own arrangement of controls? Would you like it if every shop had its own credit card and would accept no other? You say finding a particular directory is very easy in Windows: how many layers can you do with a single click as you can with the find command. Windows is good for the occasionally user, for the person who prefers to be visually prompted at each step. But point and click is slow for frequently used combinations, whereas command lines can contain scripts. How, in Windows, can you delete all temp directories and their contents and reset all save files to a know state before running a test - with a single click? Windows may be good for the sort of things that you do. But it is not good for the sort of things that I do. On Linux, I can automate the routine setup operations I do before running a test to a single line. On Windows it would take me twenty plus clicks. And I don't need menus: I know what I am doing; I have been doing it for forty years. Windows is baby talk - easy but slow.

Mac OS X is actually based on Unix and so is Linux .Windows is completely different and proprietary while Linux is open source .Most of the servers run on some variation of Unix  and developers often doesn't work on desktops application as Windows server technologies are not as popular. Also command line interface available in Linux/Unix is very powerful and can easily overpower any graphical interfaces used by Windows or Mac or Linux distributions. Most developers work on command line interface. Ex .Imagine the time you would require for  making 1000 new folders and naming them in Windows. In Unix environment one line command can do all this for you but you must know the commands and it has a bit of a learning curve and also requires practice but once you are there any graphical interface would not please you. Mac, based on Unix has all the benefits of Unix systems and has an added advantage for front end designers as many things render on Macs better than on PCs

It really depends on what the users of these technologies are trying to achieve. Each operating system has developped to occupy a niche within the ecosystem. Windows is the defacto business operating system. Mac is the reference OS for designers. Linux occupies much of the server side Internet. The reasons why we prefer one OS over another, these days, has little to do with the user interface: each platform has its quirks and their differences aren't so huge that they can't easily be overcome by regular people. Except that, perhaps, yes, change is a pain. The reasons why each group remains faithful to their technology of choice has more to do with anthropology and market dynamics. Some Linux geeks like to rely on a flexible environment built on open standards as a common good. The command line is only an example of open source dynamics at work. It shares a long history of community dedication which Window's Powershell may hardly compete against. These Linux geeks can manage doing Word processing using OpenOffice, but this could be becausr it may not be their major concern. Mac users can be confident that makers of design software will support them, while simultaneously benefiting from UNIX's legacy and some high profile commercial software. Mac and Linux have much to offer when Windows isn't a requirement. Linux is deeply rooted in the history of hacker culture as an offspring to professional UNIX workstations that dominated academia years before the personal computer became commonplace. And Mac OS has been sharing this ancestral tree with Linux for quite some time, now. Each model is in continuity with the expectation of its users. Mac is backriding on the UNIX offering by promising simplicity and commodity. Linux is also backriding on itself by holding different promises, depending on who's adapting it and developing for it. It could be: freedom, free access to billions of dollars worth of development efforts, community involvement, etc. It all comes down to marketing, really...

Because the command line is a user interface too, even if it's not a graphical one. For a developer, a good command line interface is much more efficient than a GUI. The command line UI on Mac and Linux is pretty damn good, the one on Windows kind of bites. Thus the user interface of both Mac and Linux is much better for developers than Windows' UI, regardless of how the point and click interface works on each.

I bought my macbook pro 7 years ago, i never rebooted it on purpose, i never seen it crash, i never even seen apps crash, well maybe once per year, i never re installed os (only upgraded), i never had to care about viruses or firewalls or paying extra for those, i never had to look for or install any special drivers, its still working as i would expect it to. Now what were you saying about windows again? I bought a win8.1 gaming desktop half a year ago (the most expensive hardware there was), i kid you not, i see bsod every few days. Not to mention memory leaks, annoying firewall and antivirus that slow me down, apps going unresponsive, making pc unresponsive etc etc etc. Now i understand why windows will never be as stable as mac due to everyone using different combinations of hardware, but should i really care?

After being on Windows since 3.2, I recently switched to Mac.   The menu thing on Macs is ridiculous, and I dislike that if you accidentally click on an icon to open a window, you can't just click it again to close it.   And I don't like that clicking the x doesn't stop the program -- it's still sort of there. Other than that, Macs are superior in every way for developers, starting with a usable command line, to well integrated tools, to more sensible defaults with more customization options.  Is it worth the extra price?   For web surfing and games and email, either Windows or Mac will do.   For serious development, I can't believe the world hasn't switched over yet.   I am FAR more productive after a couple months of Mac than I was after decades of PC use. And don't get me started about f-ing Windows neediness with the constant "if you love me you'll just click 'update software' just one more time...."

Because when developing, I don't care what the OS's UI is like. I'm more interested in how stable it is, how easily configurable it is, and how compatible its software is with other developers. I prefer Linux and Mac over Windows for these attributes. However, I also prefer Linux and Windows over Mac because of the hardware UI; I'm used to two-button mouses, Ctrl keys and so on. So I use Windows for non-development business: email, documentation, spreadsheets and so on - MS Office stuff - and I have a Linux virtual machine that sits on top for my development. Some of my colleagues have their machines the other way round, but it would take some time to configure, so I haven't bothered. I also use Windows for games and multimedia at home, because end-users don't tend to use Linux, so games and media designers don't tend to develop for them.

I'm a developer who prefers Windows.  I'm sure it's due in large part to being a .NET developer and it's what I'm used to.  Ubuntu is cool, but feels outdated and clunky.  As for the arguments about scripting, PowerShell makes that a breeze with Windows.

Mac , Linux way of solving a problem : Open a terminal , type .... Done ! Windows way of solving a problem : Open search bar Type control panel Open control panel Open .... Chose ..... Go to advanced options ... I think the major problem with Windows is that it does not have a powerful UNIX like terminal as Linux or Mac Does.