Python's Niche?

A few years back I started pythonology.org as a way to try to help new users pick up Python, particularly when they needed material to convince management that Python is a good choice. Together with the launch of this partially neglected site, I created a now-inactive mailing list marketing-python. Bold ambitions were announced, but not much happened in the context of "marketing" Python as you might market, say, Java or .NET with a boat load of vigorous hype.

The consensus seemed to be that Python needs a "niche" like those that catapulted Perl and PHP to comparatively wild success. But Python is terrific for many things so it's hard to focus on one or another. With no killer app and no hefty marketing bank roll in sight, we were told that little open source Python could never succeed by herself in the mainstream.

But here we are in 2005 and something curious has happened -- InfoWorld tells us that 14% of all programmers use Python, up 6% from the previous year. This almost doubles the number of Python programmers world-wide. Microsoft and Google are providing two out of three keynotes at the upcoming PyCon conference. Many other big companies are using Python, more and more of them openly on mission critical projects (see for example, Python Success Stories).

So it seems Python is succeeding without any organized marketing effort from the community. Does this mean it has a niche after all? I think it does and it's really quite simple: In a world where more and more companies want to avoid proprietary traps, Python is the solution they are turning to. Python represents the only really viable, robust, scalable, and mature open source alternative to broad-based proprietary technologies like C# or Java. In fact, Python is a heck of a lot better than either of these heavy-weights, in some areas where its standard libraries and third party modules really shine (or theirs really suck). For examples, see this overview.

If I'm right, I and my fellow dysfunctional marketeers can rest at last and enjoy the ride, because the push for technological freedom is - especially outside of the USA - a largely unstoppable force. And Python is, I can say with confidence, quite ready for the crush.