> What you wrote might appeal to some developers, but it means little to users
If you look throughout history, the operating systems that succeeded where the operating systems preferred by developers. Whether this is mixing causality with correlation, we can't really be sure, since the marketplace is in general weird, however it's safe to assume that popularity amongst users is related to popularity amongst developers.
1) Exhibit A: Windows versus OS/2 (remember IBM's OS/2 ?)
If you look throughout history, the operating systems that succeeded where the operating systems preferred by developers. Whether this is mixing causality with correlation, we can't really be sure, since the marketplace is in general weird, however it's safe to assume that popularity amongst users is related to popularity amongst developers.
1) Exhibit A: Windows versus OS/2 (remember IBM's OS/2 ?)
2) Exhibit B: "The Return of the Mac", by Paul Graham - http://paulgraham.com/mac.html
3) Exhibit C: Symbian in 2007 had 70% of the market-share or even more