[drinchev]

I hope I don't put oil in the fire, but OS X is more close to any Linux ( since it's unix based ) than Windows is going to be, which makes a great difference for any developer.

I can benefit all available *nix tools in it's native state ( not run by cygwin ).

I doubt there is statistics for this, but in my mind OS X is the most popular OS that people are doing web-development on.

Although I like what Microsoft are doing lately with TypeScript and many more additions to open source community, it is really hard for me to imagine a switch.

[Amezarak]

> I can benefit all available nix tools in it's native state ( not run by cygwin )

Like you say, it's incredibly difficult to pull any solid numbers for this - Github isn't even close to representative, web server hosting is skewed by domain parking, pretty much any statistic you can come up with to support any side, at least that I can think of, is going to have major problems.

But Windows-based developers have an entirely different workflow that completely obviates the need for Linux tools. Sometimes the workflow is different enough so you genuinely don't need it - the average ASP.NET developer probably doesn't have any need for them. Sometimes the developer just doesn't know any better - and you see that kind on all systems. Sometimes they've developed a PowerShell proficiency or something that lets them use analogous tools in an analogous ways. But this just isn't an argument. It's effectively saying, "well, if you do web development like I do, you need *nix." Well, of course! :) For most of them, it would be equally unimaginable to switch. I think there's very few like me, who have actively done and enjoyed both professionally.

There are, of course, exceptions: I think we can all agree that almost all ASP.NET developers are on Windows and almost all Ruby developers are on OS X or maybe Linux. Most of the amateurs are certainly on Windows - I don't mean that in a disparaging way, I just mean the people just starting out and putting together very simple, possibly static webpages, or playing around with whatever their CMS has set up for them. Then you have all the enterprisey web development, likely mostly internal sites, with somewhat less of a skew, but still probably majority Windows. For the professional, public-facing sort of stuff, I expect its a lot closer to 50/50. Of course, just like you say, it's very hard to demonstrate anything and anecdote-by-anecdote and gut-feeling doesn't really say much.

[nothrabannosir]

I work and develop on Windows. Go, javascript / typescript and Scala, mostly. I can tell you: every development tool you can think of runs just fine on Windows. Natively:

* bash

* all the GNU tools (grep, less, ...)

* vim

* emacs

* npm

* all the npm tools (gulp, grunt, &c; everything installable through npm)

* gcc

* make

* IntelliJ

* ssh (command line or putty)

It's all here. Without cygwin. The only problem I ever have is performance of the FS on many small files. That's just terrible.

[ajanuary]

"Just fine" might be overstating it a little. For example, I've often hit path length limits with npm. But definitely better than most people seem to expect.

[antihero]

Having the tools is one thing, having an OS that you spend 60%+ of your waking hours on which is a pleasure to use and makes you happy is another.

[lectrick]

I'd just run a *nix VM.

If your corporate policy even allowed that. :P

[cozuya]

No nvm though, bizarrely.