C# nears Java: a dramatic climb in programming language popularity rankings

[brochi]

In brief: According to the Tiobe index of language popularity, the gap between Java and C# is so small that if the current trends remain unchanged, C# will overtake Java in about two months. Of all the languages, Java shows the highest annual decline (3.92%) and has dropped one position compared to October 2022.

Java is currently at number 4 on the Tiobe index of language popularity, with an 8.92% rating, while C# is ranked fifth with a 7.71% rating. Java was ranked top in April 2020, its highest position since 2001, and dropped to number 4 in September 2023, its lowest position (since 2001) after being overtaken by C++, C, and Python.

In the ranking, C Sharp shows the highest gain of 3.29%, while Java shows the highest decline of all the languages annually (3.92%) and has dropped one position compared to October 2022. The two programming languages belong to the 'C-family' and have gone head-to-head for more than 20 years now.

According to Tiobe, which specializes in assessing and tracking software quality, Java's downfall is attributed mainly to Oracle's move to introduce a paid license after the release of version 8 of Java.

On the other hand, Microsoft's C Sharp is free and open source even though Microsoft had earlier released the language along with Visual Studio and .NET Framework, which were all closed-source. It later released Visual Studio Code and the unified .NET platform, all of which support C# and are open source.

Another reason for Java's decline, according to Tiobe, is that its definition has not changed much in the past, and its direct competitor and alternative from JetBrains, Kotlin, is easier to use and completely free.

The rankings are based on the Tiobe programming community index, which is updated monthly and indicates how popular programming languages are. The ratings are based on the number of third-party vendors, courses, and skilled engineers. Yahoo!, Bing, Google, Rakuten, and Etsy are some of the 25 popular search engines used for the calculation, and the ratings are calculated by counting the number of hits.

Tiobe says that the index does not focus on the best programming language, and you can use it to check whether your programming skills are up to date or to decide the programming language you need to pick.

Image credit: Christopher Gower

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100497-c-catching-up-java-programming-language-popularity-rankings.html

 

[LetTheWookieWin]

Oracle’s licensing change was a huge deal. I’ve been in numerous meetings in my organization determining the impact of transitioning to OpenJDK vs the need to stay on Oracle JDKs. The licensing costs for large companies using Oracle JDKs under the new model can be enormous.

The decline of Java usage should be a good warning to organizations that start charging for licenses after years of “free” runtimes. Too bad Unity wasn’t paying attention.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Oracle’s licensing change was a huge deal. I’ve been in numerous meetings in my organization determining the impact of transitioning to OpenJDK vs the need to stay on Oracle JDKs. The licensing costs for large companies using Oracle JDKs under the new model can be enormous.

The decline of Java usage should be a good warning to organizations that start charging for licenses after years of “free” runtimes. Too bad Unity wasn’t paying attention.

I think the executives do it for the short term stock price rise with no long term impact accountd for.

 

[bviktor]

Oracle’s licensing change was a huge deal. I’ve been in numerous meetings in my organization determining the impact of transitioning to OpenJDK vs the need to stay on Oracle JDKs. The licensing costs for large companies using Oracle JDKs under the new model can be enormous.

The decline of Java usage should be a good warning to organizations that start charging for licenses after years of “free” runtimes. Too bad Unity wasn’t paying attention.

It was a jump scare and that's about it. It settled down long ago, and now we have like 9 million alternatives.

https://whichjdk.com/

So no, this recent jump of C# is most certainly not explained by a licensing deal that's been solved (and forgotten) several years ago.

 

[LetTheWookieWin]

It was a jump scare and that's about it. It settled down long ago, and now we have like 9 million alternatives.

https://whichjdk.com/

So no, this recent jump of C# is most certainly not explained by a licensing deal that's been solved (and forgotten) several years ago.

Except for the fact that corporations with large investments in Java likely didn’t jump overnight. Plus, organizations that got hosed by the licensing change are probably not too keen to continue developing on that platform. That’s why it will be interesting to watch what happens over time in the aftermath of the the Unity debacle.

 

[Raytrace3D]

Been a C# developer since 2008 and .NET developer since 2003. Glad to see C# is still relevant after 20 years thanks to Microsoft getting their act together and making C# open source. That said, there are so many great languages that have come out of no where. It's hard to keep up. lol

 

[Adnan M]

I have been a dedicated C# programmer since 2010. But shifted to JavaScript recently. Frontend, backend—everywhere I see Javascript and JSON. God knows what the future holds.

 

[nnguy2]

Weird, I wouldn't have considered Visual Basic or SQL as a programming language.

 

[human7]

I wish there were more rankings like Tiobe out there, the StackOverflow one being the other big one. The limitation with Tiobe is that it bases its rankings essentially on how much people are querying various search engines for that language. It has always been a bit volatile for this reason. And now, especially with AI-based code generation, I wonder what they are doing to improve the ranking's reliability.

 

[OortCloud]

Weird, I wouldn't have considered Visual Basic or SQL as a programming language.

Visual Basic is certainly a programming language. Not necessarily a very good one, but definitely a programming language, and actually (along with Delphi/BCL) a quite revolutionary paradigm in its day. SQL is a bit more of a grey area, I agree.

Well I've used them all extensively commercially with the exception of PHP. Never understood Python's success. Really enjoyed coding in C, C++, Assembler, C#, JavaScript less keen on Python! Just my opinion, please no ranting.

 

[McMurdeR]

Weird, I wouldn't have considered Visual Basic or SQL as a programming language.

They're not for applications programming, I'd agree. However I'd argue all Software Engineers should have some basic competency with SQL. It's a must-have in the Data Engineering space, a growing area alongside Business Intelligence, Data Science and Machine Learning/AI.

On the other hand I hope Visual Basic dies forever.

 

[human7]

Weird, I wouldn't have considered Visual Basic or SQL as a programming language.

Both are Turing complete. Well, SQL is under certain dialects.

Excel (without VBA macros) is also Turing complete (very recently been made so with a new feature, LAMBDA, before which even something as simple as reversing a string was not possible in Excel without outside scripting). So, believe it or not, Excel is actually the most popular programming language in the world. Technically. Here's a link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/lambda-the-ultimatae-excel-worksheet-function/

Excuse me while I find that Scotch I've been saving for a night when I need lots of comfort from reality.