This may fall into the "for what its worth category" but here goes.....

I use both  Macs and DOS boxes.  I prefer the Mac for both development and
"writing manuals" and other graphics intensive tasks.  I use a windows
based machine because there some apps out there that are only written for
that platform.

On the Mac side Crossbow from peripheral issues (I can dig up their URL if
you wish) seems quite capable and for other processors such as the Motorola
line development tools are readily available for both platforms.

There is no single "best" machine.  Publishing the interface specifications
for the programmers that are out there would seem like a sensible thing to
do even if there were only one platform.

Regards,
John Miskimins