If there's a way to poll the students before hand, I'd recommend that. Let the majority decide. You want to teach them how to do things that presumably are not "learn how to use an Operating System". Don't get in the way of that. Another factor is what operating system they're already using. If they can't take your lesson home and replicate it on their own hardware, what's the point?
Also depends on your technology stack. What's the burden for getting the tools you need onto OSX? If it's higher than installing .dmgs, or using Homebrew, then compare and contrast with that same level of effort on a Linux platform.
It might be that the argument isn't even Linux vs OSX, but which flavor of Linux. Debian is great, and has tons of packages, but if you're wanting to support newer packages, Ubuntu might be the way to go, for example.
A point in favor of OSX might be that Linux developers are likely going to be able to grok OSX greater than the other way around. But in the other column, Linux is going to work on a much greater variety of hardware.
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If there's a way to poll the students before hand, I'd recommend that. Let the majority decide. You want to teach them how to do things that presumably are not "learn how to use an Operating System". Don't get in the way of that. Another factor is what operating system they're already using. If they can't take your lesson home and replicate it on their own hardware, what's the point?
Also depends on your technology stack. What's the burden for getting the tools you need onto OSX? If it's higher than installing .dmgs, or using Homebrew, then compare and contrast with that same level of effort on a Linux platform.
It might be that the argument isn't even Linux vs OSX, but which flavor of Linux. Debian is great, and has tons of packages, but if you're wanting to support newer packages, Ubuntu might be the way to go, for example.
A point in favor of OSX might be that Linux developers are likely going to be able to grok OSX greater than the other way around. But in the other column, Linux is going to work on a much greater variety of hardware.