In the early naughties I would have said Apple was worth the extra cost. My 2002 laptop still works fine. But now I would suggest Linux for coding and Chromebooks for general use. I had to get a laptop with windows installed about a month ago to run course software. It’s a brand new top of the range machine and it’s running windows 10 and the bugger takes forever to get it’s buggy ass into gear. Modern Apple build quality is terrible and overpriced. A hackintosh solution might work with some people but to be honest Chrome or Linux is the answer for most user types.