Windows Is The Most Popular OS For Development, Followed By Linux And macOS

ByAbubakar Mohammed
windows for software development

Which OS hits your mind when I say software development? Probably Linux? But you’d be surprised to know that Windows is and has been the most popular choice for software development, followed by Linux and macOS for five years, according to the latest JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2021 survey.

In this article, let’s explore some of the stats from the survey and look at the areas and trends that modern software developers are following.

Windows is the big deal yet again but why?

It all boils down to developers wanting to set up an environment easily. The user-friendly nature of Windows allows developers to get started with development as quickly as possible. While Linux does come with necessary libraries and programming languages preinstalled, working on Windows is just so much easier than on Linux, at least that’s what a lot of developers think.

61% of people run Windows, followed by 47% Linux users and 44% macOS users. Users were also surveyed for WSL, and it turns out, 65% of developers on Windows don’t use it. 21% said they work with tools installed in WSL, 17% said they work with both projects and tools located in WSL, and 14% said they run applications in WSL.

When asked about which platforms do they develop for, here’s what the results turned out to be.

which platforms do you develop for

And as we saw from the programming languages survey where JavaScript came out at the top, over 60% of devs develop websites. Here’s how the other things follow.

What do you develop

If you want to read more stats, check out the official JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2021 survey page.

Since the Linux numbers haven’t gone up, it is hard to predict the future numbers or if Linux will beat Windows in the next survey. But we do know that Linux is a wonderful operating system for both development and daily usage.

Are you a developer? Which OS do you use for development? Let us know in the comments section below.

Abubakar is a Linux and Tech Writer. Hailing from a Computer Science background, the start of his love for Tech dates back to 2011, when he was gifted a Dell Inspiron 5100. When he's not covering Tech, you'll find him binge-watching anime and Tech content on YouTube or hunting heads in competitive FPS games. You can also find his work on Android Police and How-To Geek.

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