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Hardly any students use Linux as their only OS - it’s almost all Windows or Mac. On the decision between Windows/Mac it’s sometimes useful to see if the particular program has a recommended platform - especially if it’s engineering/computer science. Sometimes particular IDEs or other software is recommended that may, for example, only run on Windows.</p>
<p>My computer science kid had a windows laptop that had vmware on it so Linux could be run as well so apps could be run on Windows sometimes and Linux the other.</p>
<p>If the OP is concerned about cost I’d recommend a Windows system vs Apple since it’s usually less expensive and still feature rich and supports a wide array of mainstream applications.</p>