I have to agree with this. At our research institute all three OSes (Mac, Linux, Windows) are represented with Mac laptops scoring the highest among students. Because of the mix, platform independence is important to us and when "in house" programs are written we strictly separate "do things" from "present things on screen". So, free multiplatform languages like GPC, FPC and of course GNU C(++) and Fortran are way more in use than for instance Delphi, which is tied to Windows.
Cheers, Gorazd
Cheers, Gorazd
----- Original Message ----
From: Kevan Hashemi hashemi@brandeis.edu To: Prof. Harley Flanders harley@umich.edu Cc: Frank Heckenbach ih8mj@fjf.gnu.de; gpc@gnu.de Sent: Fri, July 30, 2010 1:19:33 PM Subject: Re: Quo vadis, GPC?
Dear Harley,
The Windows family counts for almost 90%:
Not in academia, it doesn't. Here at Brandeis University, there are more students with Apple lap-tops than Windows lap-tops. There are more and more students using Linux in preference to Windows. Yesterday I wiped another Windows drive and my student installed Ubunto. We're sick of Windows.
Only when you get into the vast realm of coporate America do you come across 90% Windows, and those people don't use the kind of software we're writing. They are still using XP because they are stuck with it from all their custom-made software packages from ten years ago.
I suspect that your 90% statistic does not apply to the GPC programmer's customers. In the long run, it could be that Windows, being a costly operating sytem, is going to die. Indeed, it is my belief that it will. Everywhere in the Physics community, Linux and MacOS are taking over.
Yours, Kevan
-- Kevan Hashemi, Electrical Engineer Physics Department, Brandeis University http://alignment.hep.brandeis.edu/