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Hardly scientific, but try an image search for "developers conference" or "developers working" or some such phrase: https://www.google.com/search?q=developers%2

Hardly scientific, but try an image search for "developers conference" or "developers working" or some such phrase: https://www.google.com/search?q=developers%20working https://www.google.com/search?q=developers%20working Lots of Macs. Lots and lots of Macs. I'm sure it varies by industry obviously. I'm sure there are industries where you won't see a lot of Macs in developers' hands.

astura 9y ago
"People who give talks at conferences" have almost zero intersection with "people who program for a living" and "laptop I use to give presentations" isn't the same as "computer I use to do everyday work." It's like trying to figure out what the most popular commuting car is by watching NASCAR racing. I'm taking issue with "almost always," that's absurd. If you look at actual surveys [1] Windows wins by a large margin. But hey, stock photos, soooooo.... Yeah! LAMP wouldn't be a well know acronym and .NET wouldn't be a robust and widely used dev environment if everyone was using Macs. I've been programming professionally for two decades and I've (happily) either used Linux or Windows for the entire time, never touched a Mac in my life. Of course, I am in enterprise software, because it pays the bills, not because it's cool. I'm much too old to try to be cool. (People giving talks at conferences are trying to impress an audience. Same with stock images. Flashy laptops, of course, are impressive and noticeable and give the image of "professional.") [1] https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2016 https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2016
- JohnBooty 9y ago
  Thanks! When you get a chance, check out the page you linked to. It definitely backs up my anecdotal observation with solid numbers. Looks like about 26% of developers (or at least Stack Overflow users) use macOS. Given a rough estimate of ~18mil software developers in the world[1] this gives use a rough estimate of nearly ~5mil developers using Macs. So that's why I found it interesting to hear a developer say, "I don't know any programmers that use Macs." There are... a lot of them. But, as you said, you've sequestered yourself in a fairly narrow niche throughout your career so it's not surprising. I'm sure there are web developers out there who literally don't know anybody that uses Windows because they've stuck to their own niches as well. Although, I work in enterprise software and my whole team is on Macs, so it's not even like you need to look outside your niche. LAMP wouldn't be a well know acronym and .NET wouldn't be a robust and widely used dev environment if everyone was using Macs. LAMP is a bit of a nightmare on Windows. Been ages since I did it, but the PHP ecosystem made a lot of non-Windows assumptions and things like Imagemagick and file upload handling in general were always kind of a pain. For this reason Macs are popular with the LAMP crowd as well. If I was doing LAMP on Windows I'd use a Linux VM or perhaps the Ubuntu compatability layer that's been added to Win10. "People who give talks at conferences" have almost zero intersection with "people who program for a living" and "laptop I use to give presentations" Not the conferences I follow. All working engineers giving talks. Not TED-style vague pop-sci motivational stuff. Though I'm sure there are conferences like that. Get out of your niche, hit up a conference, meet other developers maybe? Or just check out some presentations online in your field of interest via ConFreaks etc? People giving talks at conferences are trying to impress an audience. Same with stock images. Flashy laptops, of course, are impressive and noticeable and give the image of "professional." I think I'm being trolled. __________________ [1] https://www.computerworld.com/article/2483690/it-careers/india-to-overtake-u-s--on-number-of-developers-by-2017.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2483690/it-careers/ind...
TeMPOraL 9y ago
In my, arguably limited, experience, it's web developers that tend to use Macs. I don't see any other type of devs with Macbooks. And web developers are also the group that is most visible on-line and tends to hold disproportionate amount of conferences.

astura 9y ago

"People who give talks at conferences" have almost zero intersection with "people who program for a living" and "laptop I use to give presentations" isn't the same as "computer I use to do everyday work." It's like trying to figure out what the most popular commuting car is by watching NASCAR racing. I'm taking issue with "almost always," that's absurd. If you look at actual surveys [1] Windows wins by a large margin. But hey, stock photos, soooooo.... Yeah! LAMP wouldn't be a well know acronym and .NET wouldn't be a robust and widely used dev environment if everyone was using Macs. I've been programming professionally for two decades and I've (happily) either used Linux or Windows for the entire time, never touched a Mac in my life. Of course, I am in enterprise software, because it pays the bills, not because it's cool. I'm much too old to try to be cool. (People giving talks at conferences are trying to impress an audience. Same with stock images. Flashy laptops, of course, are impressive and noticeable and give the image of "professional.") [1] https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2016 https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2016

JohnBooty 9y ago
Thanks! When you get a chance, check out the page you linked to. It definitely backs up my anecdotal observation with solid numbers. Looks like about 26% of developers (or at least Stack Overflow users) use macOS. Given a rough estimate of ~18mil software developers in the world[1] this gives use a rough estimate of nearly ~5mil developers using Macs. So that's why I found it interesting to hear a developer say, "I don't know any programmers that use Macs." There are... a lot of them. But, as you said, you've sequestered yourself in a fairly narrow niche throughout your career so it's not surprising. I'm sure there are web developers out there who literally don't know anybody that uses Windows because they've stuck to their own niches as well. Although, I work in enterprise software and my whole team is on Macs, so it's not even like you need to look outside your niche. LAMP wouldn't be a well know acronym and .NET wouldn't be a robust and widely used dev environment if everyone was using Macs. LAMP is a bit of a nightmare on Windows. Been ages since I did it, but the PHP ecosystem made a lot of non-Windows assumptions and things like Imagemagick and file upload handling in general were always kind of a pain. For this reason Macs are popular with the LAMP crowd as well. If I was doing LAMP on Windows I'd use a Linux VM or perhaps the Ubuntu compatability layer that's been added to Win10. "People who give talks at conferences" have almost zero intersection with "people who program for a living" and "laptop I use to give presentations" Not the conferences I follow. All working engineers giving talks. Not TED-style vague pop-sci motivational stuff. Though I'm sure there are conferences like that. Get out of your niche, hit up a conference, meet other developers maybe? Or just check out some presentations online in your field of interest via ConFreaks etc? People giving talks at conferences are trying to impress an audience. Same with stock images. Flashy laptops, of course, are impressive and noticeable and give the image of "professional." I think I'm being trolled. __________________ [1] https://www.computerworld.com/article/2483690/it-careers/india-to-overtake-u-s--on-number-of-developers-by-2017.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2483690/it-careers/ind...

TeMPOraL 9y ago

In my, arguably limited, experience, it's web developers that tend to use Macs. I don't see any other type of devs with Macbooks. And web developers are also the group that is most visible on-line and tends to hold disproportionate amount of conferences.