Stack Overflow: Linux Surpasses macOS Among Developers (UPDATED)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 25, 2022,
updated Jan 03, 2023

Linux has reached a major milestone, surpassing macOS among developers for both personal and professional use.

Linux has long been the third most popular operating system (OS), after Windows and macOS. Stack Overflow has released its 2022 Developer Survey, and it’s good news for Linux fans.

According to the Developer Survey, Linux use has passed macOS by a significant margin. Linux is used by 40.23% of developers as their primary OS for personal use, while 39.89% use it as their primary OS for professional use. In contrast, macOS is used as a primary OS for personal use 31.07% of developers and for professional use by 32.97%.

Read on

UPDATE

• Stack Overflow Survey Finds More Developers Now Use Linux Than MacOS - Slashdot

  Justin Garrison works at Amazon Web Services on the Kubernetes team (and was senior systems engineer on several animated films).

Two more today:

• More developers reportedly now use Linux than macOS | TechRadar

  New 2022 figures have claimed some surprising results in what the most popular operating systems were in 2022

  The 2022 Stack Overflow Developer Survey (opens in new tab) reports that Linux-based software is now more popular than Apple's macOS as developers apparently flock to other systems.

  Linux distros, representing 40% for both personal and professional use, which are recognized as being some of the most customizable and adaptive operating systems for developers. The 40% share is up from around one quarter in each of the previous five years, which shows a significant shift to Linux that may continue into 2023.

• Report: More Developers Use Linux Than a Mac

  A new survey from Stack Overflow shows that significantly more developers use Linux than a Mac, though Windows maintains a huge lead over both.

  “Each year we explore the tools and technologies developers are currently using and what they want to use,” the vaunted developer resource explains in its 2022 StackOverflow developer survey. “We have the favorite Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted data as well as Worked With vs. Want to Work With, which shows us precisely what developers used in the past year and what they want to work on in the following year.”

  As for the platforms that developers use, Windows retains its lead, with 62.33 percent of respondents using Windows for personal use and 48.82 percent using it for work. Linux is number two, with 40 and 40 percent, respectively, while the Mac brings up the rear with 31 and 33 percent. Interestingly, Microsoft’s Windows Subsystem for Linux is in fourth place, with 15 and 14 percent usage, respectively, which indicates that the popularity—or necessity—of Linux with developers is even higher.

  For non-developer “synchronous tools,” Zoom and Microsoft Teams are tied for number one with 56 percent usage, followed by Slack (53.43 percent) and Google Chat (20 percent). As for “asynchronous tools,” Jira Work Management is in first place by a wide margin (50 percent), followed by Confluence (40 percent), Trello (33 percent), and Notion (20 percent).

Joey Sneddon:

• More Developers Use Linux than Mac, Report Shows - OMG! Linux

  The 2022 StackOverflow developer survey shows that more developers use Linux than Mac.

  And while Windows remains the most used platform with developers overall it’s not by as much as you may think.

  The traditional annual survey from developer resource Stack Overflow reveals, as noted by Thurrot, that Microsoft Windows is the most widely used operating system among developers who took part in the poll.

  A smidgen over 48 percent of developers say they use Windows in their work-related tasks (and a larger 62% say they use it for their non-work/personal/hobby needs).

Personal blog:

• 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop

  Thanks to the 2022 StackOverflow developer survey we can finally say 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop!

  Linux as a primary operating system had been steadily climbing for the past 5 years. 2018 through 2021 saw steady growth with 23.2% , 25.6% , 26.6% , 25.3% , and finally in 2022 the usage was 40.23%. Linux usage was more than macOS in 2021, but only by a small margin. 2022 it is now 9% more than macOS.

Also covered in:

• TikTok Is Used to Spy on US Reporters - Invidious

  This week in the Weekly News Roundup, TikTok used their app data to track US reporters, a new scamvertising scam is going around, and Linux is overtaking Mac for developers. We also visit SillyVille.

Liam Dawe:

• Linux use overtakes macOS on the Stack Overflow Survey | GamingOnLinux

  Well this is a fun statistic, it seems Linux has become a fair bit more popular than macOS on the Stack Overflow Developer Survey for 2022.

  Firstly for the 2021 data, professional Linux use was at 25.17% and overall Linux use was 25.32%. At the time macOS was at 30.04% for professionals and 25.19% overall. This was from over 80,000 responses.

  This year's survey had over 70,000 responses, and the results for 2022 show that 40.23% use Linux for personal use while 39.89% use it as a professional. Personal use for macOS was at 31.07% and professional use at 32.97%.