

Tools used by influential developers and designers - 666_howitzer
https://medium.com/p/128048074e9f

======
RyanZAG

      > Popular hardware: 
      > Keyboard, less than 50%
      > iPhone 4, 60%
      > Apple's incredibly overpriced cinema display, 75%
      
      > Popular softeare:
      > Chrome, only web browser listed, roughly in line with winxp
      > winxp + win7 more than mac osx, yet most people using a mac?
      > google-reader more than mail ?
    
    

There is something incredibly wrong with the data used by this article.

~~~
scorpion032
Hey, I am the author of the post. Here are some clarifications:

\- None of the values are the %. They are the actual number of people that
said they use that ware. About 70 people said they use iphone 4 and about 40
people said they use the apple keyboard.

\- "keyboard" is a slug used for the Apple Keyboard. Half the people that were
interviewed wanted to explicitly mention that they use that keyboard.

\- No one provided the interviewees with a set of names to tick if they used
that hardware or software. In that case you'd have a comprehensive set of
user-wares from which you could get the accurate info. I'd detest such an
interview. I can not imagine why all of these people wouldn't.

\- What we have is a free form text where in the interviewee says whatever
he's allowed to. When he says he uses a Mac, there is no reason why he'd also
say he uses osx. - That would be redundant.

\- If people are asked what they like to consume, no one mentions water or
cereals or vegetables, even though everyone has it. What is mentioned is the
particular dish or a cuisine that they actually want you to know that makes
them feel better. Likewise here, google reader actually helps a lot of these
people and they want to share it with the readers.

\- It is much more what people like themselves to be associated with. Seth
Godin has written a lot about it. People say Google reader much more than mail
because they want to be associated with using it. "mail" here, btw is the slug
to the actual Apple-Mail client.

Hope it helps set a perspective on how this should be read.

------
jiggy2011
This is just a list of basically interchangeable hardware/software products.
How much does it matter that certain demographics prefer macbook pro to
macbook air or sublime to emacs?

The PG quote is talking about things like the WWW or bitmap displays, stuff
that is fundamentally different technology, not just measuring the popularity
of laptop brands.

------
kken
I am not sure what to make of that list

* It mostly lists generic software (Google-docs?) * It's extremely MAC centric

~~~
alan_cx
Dunno what anyone else thinks...... Its just that describing google-docs as
software jarred with me. I guess I see google-docs as a "website" or a
"service", not "software", as such.

Why?

Not actually sure. I think I see software as something I buy and install on a
local machine. But my, possibly incorrect, gut reaction is that services on
websites are not "software".

------
liotier
I call sampling bias, if only because very few of the 'influential' developers
I know use a Macintosh. I guess that the sample only includes 'hip'
independents. Most people in a corporate setting do not choose their
workstation. Then, anyone who hosts anything has a heavy dose of his Linux
distribution of choice in the mix. Not defining 'influential' doesn't help
with the site's credibility.

~~~
dasil003
By the number of times you quote adjectives in your comment it's clear you
have some sort of reflexive disdain for the whole concept. However I challenge
you to define "influential" in any more objective way than what The Setup
does. They interview a pretty diverse set of individuals, but of course they
are all somewhat Internet famous for some public work they've done. I think
it's pretty safe definition to say that people in the corporate world who
don't choose their own workstation and are not publicly known are not as
influential as interviewees on The Setup regardless of how smart, talented or
accomplished they are.

If you don't like the content of The Setup then don't read it, but this is a
simple statistical analysis of something which exists and many people value in
its own right. You can take it or leave it, but please don't set up a strawman
about how it's not statistically valid when in fact there is no way any such
endeavour could be.

~~~
dean
" _please don 't set up a strawman about how it's not statistically valid when
in fact there is no way any such endeavour could be._"

So you agree that it's not statistically valid. Therefore it's not a strawman
argument.

~~~
dasil003
Do you know what a strawman argument is?

------
ArtifTh
> Almost everyone uses a Mac. Where? I, actually, don't know anybody who uses
> mac.

~~~
thejosh
It depends on which developer groups they used. It seems certain web languages
attract people who use Macs, where this data probably came from.

~~~
coreyja
It also includes designers which in my experience are almost 100% mac users.
So that will sway the stats more in that direction as well.

What is weird to me, is under Software we see Windows 7 and even Windows XP
but we don't see any form of linux.

~~~
colinhowe
and we see a lot of people using Macs but running Windows on them.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
I used to see that a lot in China 5 years ago when mac hardware was becoming
popular. Then about 3 years something happened: they stopped installing
pirated XP on mac hardware and rather were already used to OS X because of
their iPhones/iPads. Quite strange.

------
jangeboers
The statistics of this article are quite wrong. Only 2 people using vim? I've
read multiple dozen articles of people using vim on thesetup.

~~~
scorpion032
The analysis is entirely available here:
[http://nbviewer.ipython.org/urls/raw.github.com/becomingGuru...](http://nbviewer.ipython.org/urls/raw.github.com/becomingGuru/usesthis_analysis/master/analysis4.ipynb)

Perhaps there are other slugs "gvim" and the like, which also have a 2 each
users.

I will verify this and let you know. Meanwhile pointing to any 3 vim users
would help me debug this.

~~~
jangeboers
John Resig: [http://john.resig.usesthis.com/](http://john.resig.usesthis.com/)

Matt Might: [http://matt.might.usesthis.com/](http://matt.might.usesthis.com/)

Selena Deckelmann:
[http://selena.deckelmann.usesthis.com/](http://selena.deckelmann.usesthis.com/)

Robert Love:
[http://robert.love.usesthis.com/](http://robert.love.usesthis.com/)

Zed Shaw: [http://zed.shaw.usesthis.com/](http://zed.shaw.usesthis.com/)

Benjamin Mako Hill:
[http://benjamin.mako.hill.usesthis.com/](http://benjamin.mako.hill.usesthis.com/)

Greg Koah-Hartman:
[http://greg.kh.usesthis.com/](http://greg.kh.usesthis.com/)

Brent Simmons:
[http://brent.simmons.usesthis.com/](http://brent.simmons.usesthis.com/)

Chad Fowler:
[http://chad.fowler.usesthis.com/](http://chad.fowler.usesthis.com/)

------
freyrs3
Notepad++ is more popular than both vim and emacs. I don't believe this.

~~~
aphelion
It's not particularly surprising when you think about it. Users of stenography
keyboards are far more "productive" than users of QWERTY keyboards. But
everyone knows how to use the latter at some level of competence, while the
latter requires extensive training in specific skills. And really, do you need
to be able to type 200 WPM?

In the same sense, vi or emacs might make you more productive in the limited
sense of typing code, but only after you've taken the non-trivial amount of
time required to obtain a level of proficiency with them. And even then, being
able to type and edit code more quickly than someone using a more traditional
text editor is only a small fraction of what constitutes performance for a
developer or designer.

------
seanmcdirmid
Model M keyboard only at 5%? That sounds surprisingly small. Though open
offices might explain that.

~~~
scorpion032
Thats actually 5 people of the interviewed-analysed 373. (And not 5%)

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Harsh then. I can't imagine programming without my Model M. It also let's my
office mates know I'm working...hehe.

------
scorpion032
I am the author of the post and happy to answer any questions.

~~~
coreyja
Was Linux represented in your test group?

Was k-mcgrady right that all the different distros made none of them make the
top 10 list?

With the people I know and work with Linux seems to be the most popular option
for programming so I am curious as to what your statistics show, and why Linux
doesn't appear.

~~~
scorpion032
\- I did not create a test group. I did a statistical analysis of all the
interviews on The Setup: [http://usesthis.com/](http://usesthis.com/)

\- Among this group, the number of people who were tagged linux was about a
fourth:
[https://github.com/becomingGuru/usesthis_analysis/blob/maste...](https://github.com/becomingGuru/usesthis_analysis/blob/master/categories.png)
I did not do a distro distribution. That is good feedback. I will find out.

Since designers hardly use linux, and since half the people are developers, it
may be safe to assume half the developers interviewed by The Setup use Linux.

------
raldu
oh... hardware and software we "should" use according to some trends? Apple?
Google? what happened to Hacker culture?

~~~
scorpion032
“When it comes to computers, what hackers are doing now, everyone will be
doing in ten years. Almost all technology, from Unix to bitmapped displays to
the Web, became popular first within CS departments and research labs, and
gradually spread to the rest of the world.” - PG

I am saying you should rather already be using this now, than doing it later,
given you'd be doing it anyway. (from PG, above.)

~~~
eliasmacpherson
I think you're incorrect to say that. You're recommendation makes no sense.
You're saying 'hackers' should do what a mixed bag of 'developers' and
'designers' are doing now, because it's inevitable they will be anyway in ten
years time, because 'PG' said so.

Picture it, self proclaimed 'hackers' all aping each other. All uniform, non
distinct from the general population. What would then make them predictors of
the future? There would be absolutely nothing unique about what they were
doing.

I'm right in assuming at least half of these are designers and not developers.
It's particularly doubtful that 'hackers' are going to swarm on to apple
hardware over the next ten years given the mac tax and apple's propensity to
lock it down.

~~~
scorpion032
The "should" use was meant for the general populace, those that adopt
something, after the tipping point in a bell curve, to give a sneak peak into
what hackers use today. - Not to hackers, who can themselves choose what they
want and who form the initial part of the bell curve.

