[freddie_mercury]

Python was already the #2 scripting language (after perl; not counting Visual Basic) back in ~1994 when I learned it. Tcl was already dying out by then and Ruby hadn't been released. So you basically had Perl or Python. You're right that it was a "first mover" advantage but I don't think data science had a lot to do with it. Perl didn't evolve gracefully over the 1995-2005 period but Python did. I think it is probably as simple as that.

By 2005 or so Python was already the #1 scripting language (other than PHP, I guess).

[jefftk]

Was python really ahead of shell for scripting in 1994?

[jbergens]

I remember it as at that time Windows and Unix was the common systems. I know we collected statistics for our business software offering that could run on multiple types of Unix and on Windows. Around 1998 I think 70% of all customers choose Windows. It was easier and cheaper.

So, I would say that the most common scripting language in the late 90s was VBScript.

I also can't recall any of the Unix gurus at our company using Python. They used bash, zsh or other shells.

[jefftk]

1998 was pretty different than 1994, though?

[oblio]

No :-)