OS Market Segments

Despite Linux and OSX only having somewhere between 2~5% desktop market share each, if I write an article about programming that gets picked up by aggregators and the trade press my site stats for Linux desktop visits jumps from about ~20% to 60~70% for about a week (OSX will jump from around 8% to 15~20%). It even overwhelms the bot numbers; quite a feat.

This is true whether the language is Python, Erlang, Guile/Scheme, or whatever else (all of these work on Windows just fine — of course there is a jump in *nix visits when I write something about Bash).

The inconvenience of trying to do multi-non-MS-language development (especially multi-node on the cheap, in house) on Windows really shows up in the stats. There is no possibility, for example, of a single person developing a multi-node game server or infrastructure system on their home network on Windows using repurposed/junk hardware. You can work on a single-node component (client-side, for example), but license entanglements, legal fears and money prevent flippantly spitting out a few prototypes.

That model of Windows is doomed to eventually adapt to this reality or die. If it weren’t for legacy small business data trapped in ancient applications and games Windows would already be dead — and the games can easily hop platforms.

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