Devs love Linux (but prefer Windows)

Latest Stackoverflow results offer interesting insights.

The latest Stackoverflow survey results are in (you can see them all at https://bit.ly/lxf281stackoverflow). Over 80,000 developers from 181 countries participated in the survey earlier this year. The findings reveal how they work, including the apps and operating systems they rely on.

While Linux, for example, is a more popular operating system for developers than macOS, with 25.32 per cent of respondents using a Linux distro compared to 25.19 per cent , Windows continues to be the most popular by quite a margin, with 45.33 per cent of respondents primarily using that.

Interestingly, this is the first year that people have been able to select Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which enables devs to run Linux subsystems within Windows – and a not-insubstantial 3.29 per cent responded that they primarily use that.

The results also show that Rust is the most loved language, while COBOL is the most unpopular. AWS is the most loved cloud platform, ahead of Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure. Meanwhile, JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language (for the ninth year running), followed by HTML.

The results also highlight the lack of diversity amongst developers. They are overwhelmingly male (91.67 per cent compared to just 5.31 per cent who identify as women), straight (84.52 per cent) and white (58.43 per cent). There’s still a long way to go for people and organisations who want to see more diversity among developers.