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> it's only supported on a niche platform Lold hard on that. Just every developer friend I know, uses Mac for coding. It is ubiquitous. In a BigTech company I

by xpl 3y ago

> it's only supported on a niche platform Lold hard on that. Just every developer friend I know, uses Mac for coding. It is ubiquitous. In a BigTech company I once worked, there were virtually no guys having Win or Linux on their laptops, so we often even didn't test our internal tooling against those platforms, as almost no one used them... Zed guys know their audience. It is developers, not gamers or office clerks.

ben-schaaf 3y ago
Every developer survey or stats on OS usage for development tools I've ever seen has Windows at ~50% and Linux about even with Mac.
- xpl 3y ago
  Probably those are students + hobbyists + maybe Windows game developers? Or my anecdata is just not representative. Maybe Zed considered it is worth targeting only Mac audience, as it gives much higher rate of people who would actually buy their editor (i.e. the rate of professional users, who code for living, is higher)? That is my guess, I don't have any data to back it up.
  - ben-schaaf 3y ago
    In my experience Multi-Platform apps that start by only targeting a single platform do so because that's the one the developer is using.
thomastjeffery 3y ago
Sounds like selection bias at work. Developers are the most likely to choose both, a platform/OS to use for work, and a workplace where other people choose/encourage the same platform/OS. If the people I was working with didn't bother to test their tooling on Linux, then I would be the one person on the team testing for (and porting to) Linux, and that would definitely motivate me to work elsewhere.
dancemethis 3y ago
Rich developers who don't mind giving their client's "secrets" to Apple.*
pjmlp 3y ago
Given that macOS only covers 10% of the desktop market, it doesn't compute, given that the other 90% of the market also needs developers.
- xpl 3y ago
  Web development doesn't bind you to a specific platform. And modern desktop apps are overwhelmingly Electron (i.e. based on a web stack). It is just simpler to develop than native, and gives you portability out of the box. And if you're a mobile developer, you must have a Mac, because the proper tooling for iOS does not exist on other platforms. So even if you target multiple mobile platforms, you'd develop it on a Mac.
  - pjmlp 3y ago
    Bubbles in an ocean of native desktop applications. iOS is only relevant in 29% of the world, many countries don't even have a relevant iOS market at all, they are fully into Android and feature phones.
    - xpl 3y ago
      I think there is sort of a Pareto distribution, like 20% of apps generate 80% of the money or something like that. Quick googling confirmed it: "Spending on iPhone users accounted for 68.13% of all consumer spending on mobile apps, while Android remained with a 31.87% share of app spending worldwide in 2024". So while it is 30% in users count, it is 70% in spending. If you want your app to generate money, you'd have to make an iOS version, otherwise it would be irrational. Same logic applies to desktop apps. It is irrational to spend resources on a native version if you can get to market faster and cheaper with a web-based thing. So from the first principles, today's successful and popular apps must be coded like that. Surely, there is still a lot of legacy...
      - pjmlp 3y ago
        Nice logic, except forgeting that there are countries where iOS hardly has a presence, and companies on those countries want to sell their stuff to people on that country, not foreigners on other countries.

by xpl 3y ago

ben-schaaf 3y ago

Every developer survey or stats on OS usage for development tools I've ever seen has Windows at ~50% and Linux about even with Mac.

xpl 3y ago
Probably those are students + hobbyists + maybe Windows game developers? Or my anecdata is just not representative. Maybe Zed considered it is worth targeting only Mac audience, as it gives much higher rate of people who would actually buy their editor (i.e. the rate of professional users, who code for living, is higher)? That is my guess, I don't have any data to back it up.
- ben-schaaf 3y ago
  In my experience Multi-Platform apps that start by only targeting a single platform do so because that's the one the developer is using.

thomastjeffery 3y ago

Sounds like selection bias at work. Developers are the most likely to choose both, a platform/OS to use for work, and a workplace where other people choose/encourage the same platform/OS. If the people I was working with didn't bother to test their tooling on Linux, then I would be the one person on the team testing for (and porting to) Linux, and that would definitely motivate me to work elsewhere.

dancemethis 3y ago

Rich developers who don't mind giving their client's "secrets" to Apple.*

pjmlp 3y ago

Given that macOS only covers 10% of the desktop market, it doesn't compute, given that the other 90% of the market also needs developers.

xpl 3y ago
Web development doesn't bind you to a specific platform. And modern desktop apps are overwhelmingly Electron (i.e. based on a web stack). It is just simpler to develop than native, and gives you portability out of the box. And if you're a mobile developer, you must have a Mac, because the proper tooling for iOS does not exist on other platforms. So even if you target multiple mobile platforms, you'd develop it on a Mac.
- pjmlp 3y ago
  Bubbles in an ocean of native desktop applications. iOS is only relevant in 29% of the world, many countries don't even have a relevant iOS market at all, they are fully into Android and feature phones.
  - xpl 3y ago
    I think there is sort of a Pareto distribution, like 20% of apps generate 80% of the money or something like that. Quick googling confirmed it: "Spending on iPhone users accounted for 68.13% of all consumer spending on mobile apps, while Android remained with a 31.87% share of app spending worldwide in 2024". So while it is 30% in users count, it is 70% in spending. If you want your app to generate money, you'd have to make an iOS version, otherwise it would be irrational. Same logic applies to desktop apps. It is irrational to spend resources on a native version if you can get to market faster and cheaper with a web-based thing. So from the first principles, today's successful and popular apps must be coded like that. Surely, there is still a lot of legacy...
    - pjmlp 3y ago
      Nice logic, except forgeting that there are countries where iOS hardly has a presence, and companies on those countries want to sell their stuff to people on that country, not foreigners on other countries.