Pham Close to Victory by Hector Alejandro

Mac or Windows? Chrome or Firefox? Emacs, Vim or Textmate? They’re the questions that wars are fought over. In this poll roundup we’ll see how the Envato community have settled them.

The Operating System Battle

Mac versus Windows? This debate sparked a long-running television ad campaign, and just as many take-offs on YouTube. Where does the Envato community stand?

If you follow our featured workspace and desktop posts, you may have guessed that Mac would win this battle. Over half (55%) of our poll voters use Mac, while only 37% use Windows. Judging by the comments, the remaining 8% goes mainly to Linux, and many of those users are dual booting with other OSs.

47 people left comments on this poll. Besides the typical “cheer for your OS” posts, there were some insightful ones as well. Here is a handful:

• dtbaker cheers: “Linux =P because it’s easier to develop on.” He also admits to running Windows and Mac in VirtualBox.
• CodingJack complains: “OSX doesn’t maximize the way Windows does.” Sounds serious!
• RimV compares the two operating systems: “I find Windows is particularly more productive to me, for average use Mac comes easy and handy.”
• Hamrath is quite open-minded: “I like Windows, Mac and Linux – in that order, but Mac and Linux being very close to each other.”
• Rick explains his choice: “I use Linux because the filesystem integrates so well with my servers and the SSH support (especially with Guake) is far better than in Windows.”
• Lots of people agree with the statement, “Use what works for you.” And the comments just kept coming. They’re worth reading – especially if you’re thinking about switching.

You can visit the original poll here.

The Browser Battle

Chrome and Firefox seem to be everywhere I look (with Chrome becoming increasingly popular), and IE seems to be more despised with every passing day. How are the browser wars being decided among the Envato community?

The Envato community’s computer usage is similar to what I have observed elsewhere. 77% of those polled use Chrome (44%) and/or Firefox (33%), while only 5% use Internet Explorer. It’s also interesting – given the popularity of Macs – that only 11% use Safari.

There are some interesting comments that went with the poll. It’s interesting that many people continue to use Firefox because of a few extensions that they can’t get elsewhere. That’s why I continue to use it as well. People tend to love Chrome because of its speed, combined URL/search bar, and Google integration.

You can visit the original poll here.

The Text Editor Battle

Some people live in their text editor. Choosing the right text editor can be time consuming. Switching to a new text editor can initially be agonizing! So the choice of text editor is a hot issue. Which do the Envato community use?

I wasn’t expecting such a cut and dry result. Sublime Text 2 (32%) and Notepad++ (27%) are by far the most popular text editors. I guess the choice is determined by the operating system used. I actually switched to Sublime Text because of the results of this poll, and I’m pretty happy with it.

The once-popular Textmate received only 11% of votes. We had to wait too long for an update, and new alternatives tempted us away. I wonder whether Coda (which received 13% of votes) is more popular now that the new version has come out.

The ancient Vim also received 13% of votes. It would have been interesting to include Emacs in the poll to compare, but I had a sense it is used much less around here.

The fact that 10% use “Other” indicates that there are a lot of options, and just as many preferences.

The poll inspired 29 interesting comments. Here is the cream of them:

• Jami Gibbs used Notepad++ for years on the PC. Now she is a Mac she wishes it was available there too, but has settled on Expresso instead. Ivor recommends she should try Sublime Text 2, and Josh Evans agrees.
• John Barton never changes. “All MacVim, all the time.”
• Matt Guay – a writer and Markdown lover – has different taste in text editors. “As a guy who’s primarily a writer, my favorite text editors are iA Writer and the online Typerighter.com. Most of what I need is plain text writing with Markdown formatting and HTML export, and both are great for that.”
• BadCat mentions another favorite: “BBEdit here. Simple. Opens everything. Fast.”
• Tiaan Willemse shouts the name of yet another editor: “Smultron!! (OSX only)”
• James explains to everyone why Vim is not more popular: “The only reason you don’t use Vim is because you don’t know how to use Vim.” That’s the chicken and the egg right there.
• Ricky and Will both mention Chocolat, the tasty editor. And Steven Scott mentions another favorite – Ultra Edit.
• And you wouldn’t believe how many comments are singing sweet tunes about Sublime Edit. Check it out for yourself.

You can visit the original poll here.

That brings us to the end of our second poll roundup. Who wins the battles? Mac, Chrome and Sublime Text 2. But not everyone agrees, so read the debates and choose what works for you.

In our final poll roundup we’ll check out the digital lifestyle of those in the Envato community. See you then.