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Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2017

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Re: Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2017

#31
post #15

Surprisingly a full 2.6% of Stack Overflow visitors identify as non male/female, of which a 0.5% transgender. Both numbers much higher than those for the general population. It would be interesting to see more information about this, looking forward to the follow-up article: "We will publish additional analysis related to respondents’ gender identities in the coming weeks."

Based on my experience both in developer communities and outside of them, I don't find that surprising. While it is evidently true that there are disproportionately more men in tech, it also seems to be true that there are more queer/trans/non-conforming people in tech. Also I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers are actually higher: assuming the choices are exclusive, the way they are worded it's not clear how trans…

Yes, most female developers I know are trans women.

Re: Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2017

#33
post #14

I'm surprised to see "platforms" as Win: 41%, Desktop Linux: 33%, Mac: 18.4%. Presumably this question was about the machine you use to develop software on. The reason I'm surprised has nothing to do with any advocacy. It's just that whenever I look around at a non-Apple dev conference in the US (Web, for example), it looks as though fewer than 1/5 of the machines are NON-Macs, while the answer to the question above…

Tl;dr India.

Re: Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2017

#36
post #19
post #14

I'm surprised to see "platforms" as Win: 41%, Desktop Linux: 33%, Mac: 18.4%. Presumably this question was about the machine you use to develop software on. The reason I'm surprised has nothing to do with any advocacy. It's just that whenever I look around at a non-Apple dev conference in the US (Web, for example), it looks as though fewer than 1/5 of the machines are NON-Macs, while the answer to the question above…

Outside of US, very few people use macs compared to you. Here in euw even in a CS course, engineering class in a top university or hackathon in a big startup incubator I can see like 1 macbook every 30 standard notebooks. Reason is simple: they are very overpriced for ours salaries (and I am in a first world country, I think their costs are prohibitive in places like India/Cina/etc) and - personal reason - as a webde…

As you say that depends on income. Based on location and whom you mix with. And perhaps some culture bias/patterns but that is my just guessing.

Macs have dominated in the areas I have worked in for the past 6 years. I would say in the companies, hands-on meetups and conferences I been to in London and across Scandinavia: 75% use macbooks, then perhaps 15% dell xps with ubuntu and 10% mix of lenovo, MS surface etc.

Though I think this split will change with the recoil of the new touch bar macs.

(Again this is just from my smaller demographic of location and people.)

Re: Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2017

#38

It is weird being a "desktop application" and mobile developer and knowing that 70% of developers do something that I am completely unfamiliar with. Web development to me feels like the Boneyard from the Lion King. This shadow land that I am too terrified to enter into, and I have no idea why I feel this way. It also bugs me like it might be a huge shortcoming at some point in my life that I have no grasp of it.

As someone who has to work in both for work, I understand your sentiment. I much prefer your world.

I think the difference is that in Desktop/Mobile, whatever crap has stuck to the wall for years - you must use because you don't have a choice. And usually this crap is fairly well documented because it is your only choice.

In the Web World, there is a bunch of crap thrown at the wall (every day) and you have no idea what will stick and what will slide off each year.

Maybe a poor metaphor, but just kind of how I feel on some days.

Re: Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2017

#39
post #14

I'm surprised to see "platforms" as Win: 41%, Desktop Linux: 33%, Mac: 18.4%. Presumably this question was about the machine you use to develop software on. The reason I'm surprised has nothing to do with any advocacy. It's just that whenever I look around at a non-Apple dev conference in the US (Web, for example), it looks as though fewer than 1/5 of the machines are NON-Macs, while the answer to the question above…

I always get the impression that SO is populated mainly by Enterprise devs using Windows.

Edit for spelling.

Re: Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2017

#40
I think the survey makes a very fundamental mistake in chucking a lot (the majority) of developers under the umbrella 'web developer'. I know they also had subdivisions (frontend, backend, full stack), but in the entire survey they are represented as one category.

Those are fundamentally different roles. Someone working exclusively on server-side applications has a totally different profile than someone working exclusively with web frontend. Concepts, technologies, tools, everything differs, and so probably does the personal profile of those developers.

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