This is an aside, but I'm really struck by how many people on HN use Windows (based on repeated …

Every company I've worked at has used Windows. Though the first one did use Linux VMs, the rest have all been pure Windows.

I've been a developer for more than two decades. I've worked at four employers during that time, and all of them had significant fractions of devs using Windows. Not vouching for the idea that any of them are "serious" though. I've never worked at a prestige employer or FAANG or anything. Just boring businesses of different sizes. Some are software, and some just do software. But Windows has always been everywhere.

I used to work for company where they used to force windows. And it was pure torture. I tried but they told me performance isn't a good reason....

My biggest client right now is about 2/3 Windows 1/3 OS X in the dev team. It was very surprising to me, but I think I freak then out with my maximised tiled iTerms on multiple screens...

While we're doing anecdotes: I essentially never meet people who own an iPhone, and I've lived (3 months+) in a huge number of countries and cities. The handful people who do are American; bubbles exist :) For a long time, high end graphics and games was mainly done on Windows and Visual Studio. I'm from that world, and only made the Linux transition last year November after Microsoft forced everyone's hand.

https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology#1-computer-o...

One thing to consider is non-office whether remote or personal projects. A lot of devs like gaming. Gaming is more simple on windows. Gaming PCs are usually high spec. High spec is good for most coding. That's why I use windows quite often. My laptop is Linux, but when I'm running heavy models I'll still remote into my main Windows PC, which I also use for gaming. Though in terms of workplaces - sure, I reckon you're on the money. Big corps often still force windows onto their Devs.

I'm a professional C++ dev working in games, and windows is used everywhere , from games themselves to the network infrastructure(I've worked for 3 of the largest games publishers too). Windows really has a fantastic support for C++ and rendering programmers imho, the tooling is world class and Visual Studio has no match as an IDE. Even if somehow my tools worked on Mac or Linux I'd still pick windows out of sheer convenience of using it for work. But as things stand - all major console toolchains are windows only. If you're making a game for PlayStation, Xbox or Switch, you have to be on windows.