Maybe it could be that Linux users are attracted to Rust, because it's a free and open source modern system programming language, not owned by big companies like microsoft and apple
#why rust users overwhelmingly prefer linux
sage marten
every time someone asks "why do users of programming language X predominantly use OS Y" i feel like it's subject to bias
silver path
I feel like a lot of devs use linux to begin with
sage marten
like, while some languages are unavoidably tied to some OS (for example .NET languages with windows), it's not always a correlation
silver path
I kinda feel like a minority bc I use windows lol
sage marten
I feel like a lot of devs use linux to begin with
i mean, you can look at the data
turbid frost
I know a big windows Rust user
sage marten
say the stack overflow survey 2022
turbid frost
rust has pretty good windows support, all things considered
ember fern
I mean, installing Rust on windows Just Works.
turbid frost
As long as you're willing to install MSVC toolchain lol
ember fern
You install and run rustup, you install the vsc extension, or whatever other IDE you use, and you're set
Ah right, the msvc thing
silver path
Trying to compile the avarage C or C++ program on windows is a pain
sage marten
you can see that there's a lot of devs using windows out there :p
so, i feel like the correlation might not necessarily exist, given that linux and windows rustaceans don't get particular advantages/disadvantages over each other
turbid frost
Apple has.... Its own ecosystem for the most part
Not much reason to use anything other than Swift if you're deep into the apple ecosystem
ember fern
so, i feel like the correlation might not necessarily exist, given that linux an...
To be fair, most Rust devs are or were also non-Rust devs
turbid frost
I come from C++
sage marten
yeah i feel like Rust monolinguals pretty much don't exist
then again it's like that for most programmers
sage marten
lmfao
turbid frost
Rust is a nice transition for a C++ programmer looking for something new, because it has a lot of familiar things
Although many times I was like "Rust is so weird... Why..."
But that was also pre-1.0 Rust
It has gotten more C++-y before it hit 1.0
Removed the weird built-in smart pointer types and green threads
ember fern
We used to be erlangy, yeah
turbid frost
It's like Rust was made for me, because I want C++, but also please catch as many mistakes as you can, mr. compiler
With C++, I used to -Wall -Wextra -Weverything-under-the-sun, and also clang-analyzer and cppcheck
lol
Rust + clippy has pretty much all that built-in
upper herald
Linux being more developer friendly is generally a widely held sentiment, as the nature of the platform means they have a lot of influence in dictating how the OS behaves. As they likely actively use the OS themselves, they have a distinct stake in how they're set up, resulting in them often having relevant tools out of the box or readily available, such as the LLVM toolchains Rust depends on...
Setting up Rust on Windows on the other hand, depends going through the installation process for Visual Studio, and it's C/C++ development tools, regardless of whether you intend to actually use them or not...
turbid frost
It's hard to find a linux install without a C compiler already installed
So that's taken care of
upper herald
In that regard, I think the idea a significant deal of developers gravitate to Linux, and then find the design or Rust appealing, has distinct weight to it...
wild ledge
i develop my software specifically on windows 11 so that i catch all the windows-and-windows-11-related bugs and bullshit so that my customers dont have to
wild ledge
ive had just as many frustrating experiences building stuff on linux as i have on windows
the problem is >>a certain language or two's<< build tools, not the os❗
oh yes glibc
turbid frost
There is also flatpak, but I don't particularly like that either, haha
I mostly either use software from my distro's repos, or compile them from source
(And then there is snap, but we don't talk about snap)
I guess this could also be a reason why Rust is so popular on linux
Pure Rust apps are statically linked (except libc, and some basic system libs)
But you can also build against musl libc to get fully statically linked binary