> $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