Frankly, if Linux is an option, try that first. It's less work and more fun (IMO). I've been strongly considering actually running Windows with the Linux subsystem turned on. If you think about it, that solves the same kinds of problems that a Mac does: you get nice Unix-y functionality, a wide variety of shells/cli utilities that just work, and you can run commercial applications (Photoshop and the like come to mind, but also games if you're into that). Of course, it's not a Mac and you get all of the nastiness that comes with Windows (viruses, having to reload every 6 months to keep things snappy, etc), but I'm beginning to see it as a more economical option than a Mac and potentially easier to deal with than Linux (as someone that has been using a Mac for a workstation for years + Linux on servers and other workstations).