If someone is new to programming, I would recommend using the operating system they're already familiar with.

Switching from Windows to OS X felt like stumbling around a pitch-black room full of shin-height coffee tables & spilled legos, and now that I've been a Mac user for over a decade, using a Windows machine feels the same way.

There's no reason to inflict that sort of pain on someone who's already going to be learning a difficult new skill.