Apple’s Mac operating system has reportedly surpassed Linux in popularity as a development environment in North America.
Although Windows remains the most popular OS for development amongst 80% of devs, Linux has slipped to third place at 5.6%, while Mac OS nows weighs in at 7.9%.
Do developers prefer Mac OS to Linux?"Apple has made tremendous strides in the last few years with innovative products and technologies. [As such], it’s quite reasonable to see developers adopting the Mac and its OS as a development environment," Evans Data CEO Janel Garvin told TG Daily in an e-mailed statement.
"[Clearly], Windows firmly remains king, but developers are obviously attracted to Apple’s devices, while at the same time Linux has lost some of its luster after years of only single digit adoption."
However, Garvin was quick to emphasize that Mac OS has not displaced Linux as an actual development target, as more than twice as many devs primarily target the versatile OS compared to Mac.
Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) is the latest iteration of the popular operating system. The OS features a refined UI designed to help bridge the gap between Apple’s iOS for mobile devices (iPhone/iPad) and Mac OS for desktops (iMac, MacBooks).
It should be noted that Mac OS X is based on the Unix operating system.
