Coming from Linux and FreeBSD, I initially didn’t feel comfortable working with OS X and I still think it’s a bad idea to run a full featured Web server on a Mac. But there are a couple of things you can do to turn your Mac into a great development environment.
Install the following essential software packages Google Chrome and Firefox – Safari is the new Internet Explorer ;) Xcode via App Store (free); required to compile software with Homebrew and comes with the Mac version of git Homebrew for installing additional Unix/Linux software packages VMware Fusion (~ 100 USD) or VirtualBox (free) for running virtual machines Docker for creating and running software containers Productivity Tools and IDEs I strongly recommend using a JetBrains IDE such as PhpStorm, IntelliJ IDEA or PyCharm (~ 100 USD) Snagit via App Store for creating nice screen shots (~ 50 USD) Scroll Reverser, if you are working with a touch pad and a mouse (on a MacBook) Transmit via App Store, if you need to work a lot with remote FTP, SFTP or WebDAV servers, e.