This is just anecdotal, but it seems like a high number of ApacheCon users use Apple laptops. During the talk prior to mine, there were ~25 people in the room, about 20 of which had laptops. Of those 20, 6 or 7 were using Apple computers. Staring across the lounge right now, I see about 30 computers, and would estimate 10 are Macs. Much higher that the purported 5% share typically given to Apple.

Are developers (or at least open source ones) adopting Apple? I have been using Apple at home for about 8 years now (still on a PC at work) and I find I can do all of my development work on a Mac. I use IntelliJ or XEmacs or even vi. In fact, a few years ago, I would have preferred to do my work on a PC only, but now I don’t think it matters. I would feel equally comfortable in the knowledge that I could get my job done on either platform. The tipping point for Apple is I don’t have to deal too much with the viruses and spyware like I do on my PC at work.

If this trend truly exists, it should bode well for Apple. One of the big reasons, I believe, for Microsoft’s ascent was that there were great tools available for developers; one of the things that always annoyed me about Apple was their lack of tools for development. It just seemed like they didn’t care too much about developers. I think the release of OS X has changed this (although we still haven’t seen Jobs up yelling “Developers, developers, developers”, but hey, Steve Ballmer was good enough).

Having the UNIX terminal underneath is very empowering for developers and I think is a great selling factor for the Mac. You can, indeed, have it all (or almost all): Nice, clean interface, with a real command line under the hood. Windows has the first, but not the second. Linux has the second, but not the first. Mac has ‘em both.

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