[dllthomas]

I wouldn't at all say either is "a small niche." As niches go, they're both pretty large... I actually have no idea how the prevalence of Mac differs inside and outside tech circles. It's a decided minority in every case, with Windows still dominant and likely Linux still dominated (though I'm far less confident about that in dev circles than I used to be). For what it's worth, virtually every developer I know well enough to know what they prefer uses either Linux or Windows, with the exception of my mother who decided some few years back that Mac is "Unix enough" now. I expect that there's a lot of clustering, though, and neither of our experience represents a uniform sampling.

Your general point - that it's likely self-reinforcing - is certainly strong. I'd even expect it to be exacerbated a bit in this case by it being GUI things in particular showing issues, where (at the risk of stereotyping) there is probably a correlation between those who prefer a Mac and those who prefer a GUI.

[jarrett]

> virtually every developer I know well enough to know what they prefer uses either Linux or Windows

Interesting. It must be clustered, as you say.

I use a Mac largely because there are a handful of professional apps that don't run on Linux. (Otherwise, I'd probably go with Mac hardware and a Linux OS.) Which implies that the demands of my industry is what pushed me (and perhaps the people I know) onto Macs.

> there is probably a correlation between those who prefer a Mac and those who prefer a GUI.

It's not so much that I personally prefer a GUI. (I don't, in general.) It's that I make a lot of software for other people, so GUIs aren't a matter of preference but of professional obligation. Also, there are certain applications I'd like to do where a GUI is pretty much the only sensible option: Design tools, certain types of games, etc.