Re: [tlug] Cultural differences

[Pier Fumagalli <pier@example.com>]

On Sat, Jun 26, 2010 at 13:06, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com> wrote:

Pier Fumagalli writes:

 > As we were talking last night about cultural differences between
 > the Linux, BSD, and Windows communities, Berin (a seasoned
 > Java/Apache developer) was writing up his ideas about the
 > differences between the Java and .NET communities.
 >
 > I think he has a point, and what he says translates nicely to
 > explain the core difference between us and windows folks:
 >
 > http://bloritsch.d-haven.net/articles/2010/06/25/net-culture-shock

You might want to go revisit the link and look at the comments.  While
I am not a C# or Microsoft fan, it sounds to me like Berin just
wandered into a bar he hadn't been in before and none of his friends
were there.

Nothing-to-see-here-please-move-on-people-ly y'rs,

I beg to disagree. True, Berin might have "stumbled in the wrong bar", but the argument is really "how many bars are out there"???

If instead of looking at a couple of comments you're willing to take into consideration a couple of community statistics, I think you'll realize that the actual number of communities out there are a bit different. Let's take into account (for example) a couple of hosting platform, SourceForge and Google Code:

12390 C# SourceForge Projects [1]

43355 Java SourceForge Projects [2]

 3061 C# Google Code Projects [3]

 5631 Java Google Code Projects [4]

In terms of programming language, as far as I can see, we stand Java to C# 3.5:1 on SourceForge and 1.8:1 on Google Code, which is quite indicative of the difference in communities out there (or how many bars can I stumble into, if I randomly choose one VS. the other).

But more important, following up on the conversation last night (and closing the parenthesis about Java vs C#) the numbers for Windows vs Linux are even more interesting:

54625 Windows SourceForge Projects [5]

56268 Linux SourceForge Projects [6]

 2605 Windows Google Code Projects[7]

 4547 Linux Google Code Projects [8]

It's odd to see how an operating system that captures 90% of the market [9] only captures 50% (if so, according to SourceForge, much less according to Google Code) of the developer community.

Few but committed? Lonely by fun? I don't know, but for sure, looking at the numbers the "developer communities" around Linux seem to be a lot more prominent that Windows one.

    Pier

[1] http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/?&fq[]=trove:271

[2] http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/?&fq[]=trove:198

[3] http://code.google.com/hosting/search?q=label:csharp 

[4] http://code.google.com/hosting/search?q=label:java

[5] http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/?&platform[]=Windows

[6] http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/?&platform[]=Linux

[7] http://code.google.com/hosting/search?q=label:windows 

[8] http://code.google.com/hosting/search?q=label:linux

[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems