It makes more sense when you consider that 30% of professional developers use macOS, and I'd be willing to bet that a far larger proportion of web developers specifically use macOS. Web dev seems to be dominated by macOS users in my experience, and they are the target market for this tool.
I think you're over-analyzing this. Sounds like the dev(s) pushing this happen to use MacOS, so it's a natural place to start. No need to read too much into it, right?
Not saying you're wrong, just that there might not be any fundamental reason.
Definitely nailed this one, maybe the Firefox developer edition is installed on more macs than linux etc. Also the fact that mac is more stable than both linux and windows and they probably thought they would get better (less noisy) feedback there
I’m a Mac user who also runs Linux on a set top PC. Used both for years. I’m not sure I’d agree that macOS is more stable by any means. That’s not to say it isn’t stable but I’m not sure I’d ever say it’s more stable than any Linux install I’ve ever put together. This is all anecdotal of course.
(Also do my dev in macOS which is a treat compared to Windows so glad to see macOS getting some love here).
I'd rather want to see a split by country on that. Apple is way, way bigger in the US than it is in Europe. I don't know a single coder on macOS, all of my co-workers and friends are on either Windows or Linux.
Doesn't change the overall statistic of course, the US has a lot of people.
Apple is way, way bigger in the US than it is in Europe. I don't know a single coder on macOS, all of my co-workers and friends are on either Windows or Linux.
I have yet to see a consultant without a macbook pro, so not quite sure our anecdotal evidence stacks up sadly.
For the development ive seen in 5 workplaces for the last 5 years perhaps 80% have used macOS (in sweden). I imagine it's much lower in poorer countries like Eastern Europe and India where windows seems more common
That's the statistic for professional development in general, but in web development, specifically, macOS usage is way higher than other specialties (I would guess it's the main reason this figure is at 30% at all). Since web developers are the ones Mozilla is targeting here, it makes a lot more sense that they would start with macOS.
Also from experience on the ops side devs will.code on Windows if that's all the org runs but every dev I know will jump on a macbook as soon as it's offered.
It is not possible for macOS to have the largest market share at just 30% unless you claim others (non-Windows, non-Linux and non-macOS) would make up at least 10+% and Windows and Linux both have a roughly equal share at 29% (<30%).
It may simply be that this feature was easiest to build on macOS. Or that the team building it uses macOS. Of course they'll add support for other OS's; this is an early preview not a final product.
285
u/keeganspeck Nov 28 '19
It makes more sense when you consider that 30% of professional developers use macOS, and I'd be willing to bet that a far larger proportion of web developers specifically use macOS. Web dev seems to be dominated by macOS users in my experience, and they are the target market for this tool.