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It's a pain in the ass to compile Crystal programs on Windows. With Go? just download the Go compiler, nothing else, Crystal isn't first class on windows. Tha

It's a pain in the ass to compile Crystal programs on Windows. With Go? just download the Go compiler, nothing else, Crystal isn't first class on windows. That's why. A lot of people here don't understand that a good chunk of developers (and students) still use Windows, without any linux subsystem or VM. PHP became popular because of easyPHP on Windows. If PHP never ran on windows it would never have ever gain its popularity, it doesn't matter if it's then deployed on Linux servers.

zerr 5y ago
Exactly. Even Google backed Go became popular only after adding Windows support.
Xevi 5y ago
Not only a good chunk, but the vast majority. If I'm not wrong, the StackOverflow survey showed that Windows has the same amount of users as Mac and Linux combined.
- DSingularity 5y ago
  Wow
- WalterGR 5y ago
  Yep. https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#section-most-popular-technologies-operating-system https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#section-most-...
- DeathArrow 5y ago
  Some will argue that SO are MS shills.
  - Xevi 5y ago
    At the same time, the largest demographic of respondents are from the US, specifically California, where the amount of Apple users are way higher than in the rest of the world.
sidkshatriya 5y ago
PHP initially came on the scene when Windows was very popular and important. This might explain why PHP provided good support for Windows. In the ensuing decades: - VMs for development have become more popular. You can run Windows but then easily develop on Linux using VirtualBox. Virtualization is very popular now when compared to the late 1990s/early 2000s. You also have WSL and WSL2 and cygwin - Windows sadly is no longer the development platform of choice. Production runs mainly on Linux. Since deployment is on Linux, its a good idea that development happens on Linux to iron out any subtle platform issues and also get good support for native extensions in languages like Ruby, Python, PHP etc. Some server software/middleware (message brokers, databases, caches etc.) have much better support on Linux. This necessitates again using Linux rather than Windows for local development - Due to the rise of mobile and web applications, the dominance of the Windows desktop platform has decreased. Not supporting Windows at one time used to be unthinkable but no longer - The Windows platform in the late 1990s was arguably technically superior and robust when compared to its competitors. Now Linux and MacOS are robust and very capable as well - MacOS has risen to become important amongst developers - Docker runs on Linux All these factors have led to Windows not being a first class citizen for many open source projects. > If PHP never ran on windows it would never have ever gain its popularity, it doesn't matter if it's then deployed on Linux servers. This is a historical fact. The situation in 2021 is different. If a new language is trying to break onto the scene today it must support Linux first. MacOS support often comes "for free" because of its BSD heritage. Windows is quite different internally and due to the reasons above, often lags behind in first class support for many open source packages. Platform support at the end of the day is a "network effect" and the network is with Linux/Unix currently.
- hota_mazi 5y ago
  You're making a lot of assumptions here, some of which are incorrect in my opinion. If anything, WSL is making Linux more irrelevant as a development environment, and Windows 11 is going to take this to the next level (take a look at Hanselman's demo video [1]). Yes, production runs in majority on Linux but development happens massively on Windows. With macOS a distant second and Linux barely used as desktops. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4VYjxzx2us https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4VYjxzx2us
egeozcan 5y ago
Does anyone remember the surge of popularity node.js got when microsoft helped it to be a thing also on windows? I do. I'm not intelligent (or silly) enough to create my own platform/language but if I were, windows compatibility would have been on the top of my list, second would be making JS developers feel at home (read: C syntax); or Python, if I'm being adventurous.
- chillfox 5y ago
  Different syntax is easier for different people to learn. So by having languages with many different kinds of syntax programming becomes more inclusive. I have a very hard time reading JS, the single symbol blocks just all bleed together for me visually when dealing with nested blocks.
cassepipe 5y ago
If you're a dev or CS student in 2021, there is really no excuse not to be running Linux. I installed Linux Mint on various old machines and on the newest one too. Took half an hour, an old usb pen drive, and it just works. At the high price of 0 bucks. If you really need windows, the installer takes care of dual booting.
- m9731526 5y ago
  It's interesting to see comments like "It's 2021 why can't you get Linux, you should or you are not qualified for a dev or even a CS student". Though I manage my own cent VM, I'm really satisfied with my Windows environment, I can code in so many Languages and do so many things swiftly and easily on my delicately tinkered OS, why would I give it up to just code Crystal?
- jhoechtl 5y ago
  I must have been ahead of time then. For me there was already no excuse back in 1999 when I installed a "Black Hat" distro booting from Floppy to have CD-Rom drivers and successfully made the transition from a 1.something kernel to 2.something without breaking anything.
- DeathArrow 5y ago
  If you aren't running * my preffered software * on your desktop in 2021 you have no excuses and you don't deserve being called a developer.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Yeah, I can bet plenty of graphics programming and game devs university degrees are soooo interested into running Linux.
- mekster 5y ago
  You don't even need a dedicated physical machine. There's WSL and cloud servers are so cheap I don't see a reason to complain it doesn't work easy on Windows.
tdrdt 5y ago
It is not Windows specific. I believe it was Haskell I tried on Linux. After multiple compile errors caused by missing libraries and conflicting versions I just gave up. And this is not the only time this happened to me. Even with old languages like C this happened to me in the past. This is a real problem for beginners because you just don't know all ins and outs of the ecosystem.
- JoelMcCracken 5y ago
  This is largely solved in Haskell by stack. Problem is many haskellers steer people away from Stack. Just so people know -- go the stack route of building your haskell apps.

zerr 5y ago

Exactly. Even Google backed Go became popular only after adding Windows support.

Xevi 5y ago

Not only a good chunk, but the vast majority. If I'm not wrong, the StackOverflow survey showed that Windows has the same amount of users as Mac and Linux combined.

DSingularity 5y ago
Wow
WalterGR 5y ago
Yep. https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#section-most-popular-technologies-operating-system https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#section-most-...
DeathArrow 5y ago
Some will argue that SO are MS shills.
- Xevi 5y ago
  At the same time, the largest demographic of respondents are from the US, specifically California, where the amount of Apple users are way higher than in the rest of the world.

sidkshatriya 5y ago

PHP initially came on the scene when Windows was very popular and important. This might explain why PHP provided good support for Windows. In the ensuing decades: - VMs for development have become more popular. You can run Windows but then easily develop on Linux using VirtualBox. Virtualization is very popular now when compared to the late 1990s/early 2000s. You also have WSL and WSL2 and cygwin - Windows sadly is no longer the development platform of choice. Production runs mainly on Linux. Since deployment is on Linux, its a good idea that development happens on Linux to iron out any subtle platform issues and also get good support for native extensions in languages like Ruby, Python, PHP etc. Some server software/middleware (message brokers, databases, caches etc.) have much better support on Linux. This necessitates again using Linux rather than Windows for local development - Due to the rise of mobile and web applications, the dominance of the Windows desktop platform has decreased. Not supporting Windows at one time used to be unthinkable but no longer - The Windows platform in the late 1990s was arguably technically superior and robust when compared to its competitors. Now Linux and MacOS are robust and very capable as well - MacOS has risen to become important amongst developers - Docker runs on Linux All these factors have led to Windows not being a first class citizen for many open source projects. > If PHP never ran on windows it would never have ever gain its popularity, it doesn't matter if it's then deployed on Linux servers. This is a historical fact. The situation in 2021 is different. If a new language is trying to break onto the scene today it must support Linux first. MacOS support often comes "for free" because of its BSD heritage. Windows is quite different internally and due to the reasons above, often lags behind in first class support for many open source packages. Platform support at the end of the day is a "network effect" and the network is with Linux/Unix currently.

hota_mazi 5y ago
You're making a lot of assumptions here, some of which are incorrect in my opinion. If anything, WSL is making Linux more irrelevant as a development environment, and Windows 11 is going to take this to the next level (take a look at Hanselman's demo video [1]). Yes, production runs in majority on Linux but development happens massively on Windows. With macOS a distant second and Linux barely used as desktops. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4VYjxzx2us https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4VYjxzx2us

egeozcan 5y ago

Does anyone remember the surge of popularity node.js got when microsoft helped it to be a thing also on windows? I do. I'm not intelligent (or silly) enough to create my own platform/language but if I were, windows compatibility would have been on the top of my list, second would be making JS developers feel at home (read: C syntax); or Python, if I'm being adventurous.

chillfox 5y ago
Different syntax is easier for different people to learn. So by having languages with many different kinds of syntax programming becomes more inclusive. I have a very hard time reading JS, the single symbol blocks just all bleed together for me visually when dealing with nested blocks.

cassepipe 5y ago

If you're a dev or CS student in 2021, there is really no excuse not to be running Linux. I installed Linux Mint on various old machines and on the newest one too. Took half an hour, an old usb pen drive, and it just works. At the high price of 0 bucks. If you really need windows, the installer takes care of dual booting.

m9731526 5y ago
It's interesting to see comments like "It's 2021 why can't you get Linux, you should or you are not qualified for a dev or even a CS student". Though I manage my own cent VM, I'm really satisfied with my Windows environment, I can code in so many Languages and do so many things swiftly and easily on my delicately tinkered OS, why would I give it up to just code Crystal?
jhoechtl 5y ago
I must have been ahead of time then. For me there was already no excuse back in 1999 when I installed a "Black Hat" distro booting from Floppy to have CD-Rom drivers and successfully made the transition from a 1.something kernel to 2.something without breaking anything.
DeathArrow 5y ago
If you aren't running * my preffered software * on your desktop in 2021 you have no excuses and you don't deserve being called a developer.
pjmlp 5y ago
Yeah, I can bet plenty of graphics programming and game devs university degrees are soooo interested into running Linux.
mekster 5y ago
You don't even need a dedicated physical machine. There's WSL and cloud servers are so cheap I don't see a reason to complain it doesn't work easy on Windows.

tdrdt 5y ago

It is not Windows specific. I believe it was Haskell I tried on Linux. After multiple compile errors caused by missing libraries and conflicting versions I just gave up. And this is not the only time this happened to me. Even with old languages like C this happened to me in the past. This is a real problem for beginners because you just don't know all ins and outs of the ecosystem.

JoelMcCracken 5y ago
This is largely solved in Haskell by stack. Problem is many haskellers steer people away from Stack. Just so people know -- go the stack route of building your haskell apps.