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What Software are Other Geeks Using?

Posted by Abel Avram on Apr 29, 2009

Sections
Enterprise Architecture,
Process & Practices,
Architecture & Design,
Development
Topics
Ruby ,
Java ,
Dynamic Languages ,
SOA ,
.NET ,
Languages ,
Web 2.0 ,
Enterprise Architecture ,
Programming ,
Architecture ,
Agile ,
Statistics ,
Social Networking

Wakoopa, a new start-up based in Amsterdam, Holland, has created a new social network aimed at discovering and sharing what applications people are using. While its user base is relatively small and geek oriented, the network provides useful insight on software usage with a social twist.

According to its creators, Wakoopa is “an online social network that helps people discover the best software, games and web applications on the market. It's the Yellow Pages of software discovery”. One can install the Wakoopa tracker, a 300 to 500 KB installer depending on the operating system (Windows, Mac or Linux), which will inform others on the same social network what software he is using and likewise he can see what they are using.

Data exported by the tracker is subject to some privacy terms. The user can always delete his own data from Wakoopa’s database, he can export the respective data, the account is promised to be kept free of charge and he has granular control about who’s seeing his profile and software usage data.

Wakoopa tracks software usage based on the following categories: Games, Audio & Video, Development, Design, Office, Internet, Utilities, Security. Each category is further divided in many sub-categories. For example, the Development category is composed of the Text Editors & IDEs, Management and Languages & Frameworks sections. Wakoopa provides usage statistics for all of them. Even more, there is additional information on each software program with description, version information, user reviews and even download links in some cases, and similar applications are suggested.

The statistics provided by Wakoopa is based on a pretty small sample of users, less than 100,000 at this point, and the majority are more likely developers. Nonetheless, the data provides an useful insight into the software usage and usage trends:

Top 10 Applications Text Editors & IDEs  Languages & Frameworks Word Processors
overall coding languages word
Browsers Anti-virus Desktop Publishing Action Games
browsers antivirus publish games

In a few words, Wakoopa’s social network allows everybody with an account to see what software others are using and to discover new applications he was not aware of.

  • This article is part of a featured topic series on SOA , Agile and also Java
Dev-C++ by Anton Arhipov Posted
Re: Dev-C++ by Abel Avram Posted
Re: Dev-C++ by Robert Krakomperger Posted
Qt ? by Rens de Nobel Posted
  1. Back to top

    Dev-C++

    by Anton Arhipov

    Howcome Dev-C++ is not an IDE any more? Is it now considered a framework? :)

    The results are quite Windows-centric....

  2. Back to top

    Re: Dev-C++

    by Abel Avram

    My understanding is this: their user base is mostly on Windows and about 30% on Mac. This certainly affects the statistics. When more users will join the network, including those on Linux, the numbers will get better.

  3. Back to top

    Re: Dev-C++

    by Robert Krakomperger

    Sure! They do not have the client for linux completed.

  4. Back to top

    Qt ?

    by Rens de Nobel

    Hope to see some Qt appearing in the list above. It's a commonly overlooked, but excellent c++ framework. They now also have the Qt Creator IDE, so you don't have to work with Visual Studio / Eclipse anymore.