More Devs Now Use OS X Than Linux, Says Survey (9to5mac.com)

An anonymous reader writes from an article on 9to5Mac: Stack Overflow reports that more developers now use OS X than Linux as their primary OS, and that if the trend continues, fewer than half of all developers will be using Windows next year. The site says it carried out "the most comprehensive developer survey ever conducted," with more than 56,000 coders across 173 countries taking part.
The survey also mentioned more were still developing for Android than iOS -- 61.9% versus 47.5%. However, almost a third of developers are using Swift, which was also the second most loved language after Rust.

Comments

in an attempt to explain this to others....

[turkeydance]

i said, Windows is equivalent to the incandescent light bulb. Linux approximates the CFL, and OS X could be the LED.

Re:in an attempt to explain this to others....

[Gadget_Guy]

The summery says OS X which is for desktops and laptops IIRC. iOS is for iShiny.

The summary also says that it is developers that were surveyed. These are people who do not have to use the operating system for which they are developing. So... iOS is the reason that they use OS X.

Re:in an attempt to explain this to others....

[Anonymous Coward]

It's worse from the perspective that just because Apple ripped BSD code and then slapped a shiny GUI over the top it somehow resembles UNIX from the 70s.

If anything it's just an example of ignorance from the GPs behalf. Failing to recgonise that if he wanted to feel all nostalgic about using a proper UNIX platform he could opt up to use any of the BSD flavors out there and keep his paid shill nonsensical rants to himself.

My POV. I'm a 15 year Linux veteran. I respect BSD and dont really have any problems with OSX. But to claim that the reason why developers use OSX out of personal preference is total bullshit. Just visit elementary.io and see how superficial the whole situation truly is.

As a developer the only reason to fork out for a Mac is so you can conform with the Nazi regime that makes up the Apple Developer Platform as to leverage Xcode.

P.S I use Gentoo. With a hackintosh VM if need be, which although may be wrong according to Apple's T&C's fondly enough isn't enforced out for respect to their hacking culture.

Re: in an attempt to explain this to others....

[MMC Monster]

I've had my Linux Mint box freeze sporadically. I thought it was the OS for the longest time but it happened a couple weeks after I did a clean wipe and reinstall.

Turned out it was a bad stick of memory. Replaced it and things have been golden.

Did the GP run a low level memory test lately?

Re:in an attempt to explain this to others....

[MrKaos]

For the record, I have used Linux since 1993. I also used Minix back then on my home-grown BBS (you wouldn't know, you are too young).

I know what you mean, going beyond tuning a solaris kernel with MAXUSERS or ATT unix, Interactive, coding C with vi on a hp700/44 serial terminal. Pretty much everything is a step up from that.

I had a short brush with Macs when I went to business school, but didn't own an OSX machine until I got a Macbook Pro a couple of years back. My personal web stuff is all on Linux on AWS. I am not an Apple fan boi by any stretch of the imagination.

I beleive you. I always though that 68000 mac hardware was better than PCs. Apple made less hardware back then, but they used the same stuff that was on the servers so it was rock solid. I loved it.

So, what makes OSX infinitely more usable than Linux? Two things, usability and apps. There are no usable apps for regular stuff for Linux. Seriously. Show me an alternative to Photoshop, for example.

I can't show you an alternative to Photoshop, except GIMP, but I haven't used it for a production so I can't speak to usability, I'm told it's very powerful. What I can speak to is Audio production in Linux is hands down where the innovation is occurring. Sure, Mac maybe more usable, but that's a poweruser issue, not an innovation issue. My observations about many Apple applications is that they let you get to a level of good productivity real fast with a fantastic user experience at the expense of sheilding you from the power of the machine and making innovation less accessible. Sure that lets you be creative, but nothing out of the ordinary.

The usability paradigm in Linux attracts a different type of user. When I commit to an application I want to own the space and not be limited by the type of commercial imperatives that can alter my investment in learning, in that regard open source software is superior because sometimes the users also contribute to the code base. Obviously this does not exclude them from being a MAC user, that is the power of open source though.

I think people are too scared to explore because of what the constantly changing Windows environment did to them. Apples brilliance was taking people out of that paradigm, who can fault that move. However Apple also missed out on the significant advances in the Power PC CPU architecture, as IBM received a massive cash inflow of development from Microsoft *and* Sony, so they weren't that smart moving to intel. I'm certain Intel would have been aware of their strategic position though, when making that deal.

I'm curious about what languages you are developing in though, do you mind sharing?

The sad reality is not that OSX folks have a superiority complex, they quite possibly do, the sad thing is that when you point out that OSX beats Linux on everything, Linux users are sooo insecure they have to lash out. Get over your self, get rid of Linux (on your desktop) and be happier.

Wow, I would have said it was the other way around, I am just so damn comfortable in Linux that the UI is almost irrelevant. I have all the platforms in the house, including a powerbook for my wife. I thought that since Apple didn't have to pay for the use of an excellent O.S platform they could focus their effort on the UI - they did great job too, however I'm just not fond of how that UI context works, it's same reason I dumped Unity. Mac is more usable, but I feel limited, like the power of the machine is abstracted away from me. You're probably right but does my preference count? I don't care what others use, however is it ok for me to use Linux because I actually like the way it works and I'm happy with it? I am stupid for not using a MAC to code?

Please don't take offence, I'm not criticizing devs who use Macs either, I'm actually interested what I can learn about if there are things better than what I do. I'm not convinced that it is a

for some definition of "developer"

[ooloorie]

For some definition of "developers" that is probably true. In this case, this is "people who use Stackoverflow and self-select in order to respond to survey questions". Their population is heavily biased towards web developers and JavaScript, and 70% are self-taught. So, the needs of most of those people are modest, and their choices tell you little about the quality of a platform. Many of them could probably develop on ChromeOS.

Re:for some definition of "developer"

[fluffernutter]

Also, Stack Overflow surveys are heavily biased towards people who like to dick around and do surveys instead of focusing on work.

Re:for some definition of "developer"

[tgv]

Pray tell, what needs to real programmers have, that an OSX machine cannot possibly provide?

And we all know that real programmers don't need any OS at all. Seymour Cray could toggle a program from the front panel. He didn't need no tabbed Gnome file browser, or any other piece of Linux software that did a half-assed attempt at imitating Windows or OSX.

Re:because you can still run linux

[afidel]

and it never stops running for some arcane reason after a pkg update.
No, just wireless, or CIFS, or some other subsystem breaks or performance goes to shit. I was amazed at how many issues the 15 OSX users at my last company managed to encounter (I was the datacenter manager but I got pulled in as senior troubleshooter since we were only a 40 person IT shop). I'm now at a global 5,000 person firm and we have hundreds of OSX users and they definitely create more than their share of tickets, not sure if that's a result of the OS or the userbase but frankly it doesn't matter to me as it still results in more work for me per supported user. I think OSX is an OK OS and have taken on a Macbook Air as my work laptop, partly because it's light and partly to make myself more familiar with OSX so I can better support my users, but people who think OSX is some magical panacea are delusional, it's still a complex OS written by human programmers so it's still going to have its share of bugs.

Say What Now?

[bjwest]

Stack Overflow reports that more developers now use OS X than Linux as their primary OS, and that if the trend continues, fewer than half of all developers will be using Windows next year.

Someone care to enlighten me on the logic here? Where does Windows usage become involved in the OS X vs Linux equation. Or, if they're trying to say people are jumping ship from Win to OS X, why mention Linux at all? Either way, there's one too many OS's mentioned in TFS. Didn't read TFA, because TFS does not compute.