this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024

176 points (93.1% liked)

Privacy

31975 readers

248 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

Chat rooms

[Matrix/Element]Dead
Discord

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

176

Programming languages ranked by popularity in privacy software (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

42 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was bored, so I compiled a list of 77 of my favorite open-source privacy-focused software. This ranges from Android apps to desktop apps to websites to operating systems. I scraped the programming languages used for each one from their respective repositories, and created a simple scoring system to score each programming language.

Obviously there is some bias, since Kotlin is very popular for Android apps and not much else, and it's not an exhaustive list, so some data might be off, but it was still fun to make! Just wanted to share it with all of you, in case anyone else finds it interesting.

The full ranking

Full ranking

C++
C
Kotlin
Java
JavaScript
TypeScript
Python
Shell
C#
Dart
PHP
Ruby
HTML
Makefile
Go
QML
Pascal
CSS
Clojure
Blade
Crystal
Batchfile
Swift
Emacs Lisp
Svelte
Rust
CMake
Haskell
Lua
Vue
Roff
XSLT
Assembly
NSIS
Objective-C
SCSS
Less
PLpgSQL
Objective-C++
Inno Setup
Meson
WebAssembly
ASL
PowerShell
Rich Text Format
GLSL
Common Lisp
Haml
Scheme
Dockerfile
Perl
AIDL
M4
Mustache
D
MDX
SourcePawn
M
Pug
Lex
EJS

Scores for each programming language

Language scores

C++: 13070

C: 11734

Kotlin: 7195

Java: 6727

JavaScript: 5356

TypeScript: 5002

Python: 4250

Shell: 1903

C#: 1873

Dart: 1872

PHP: 1844

Ruby: 1499

HTML: 1389

Makefile: 990

Go: 975

QML: 955

Pascal: 917

CSS: 888

Clojure: 878

Blade: 832

Crystal: 738

Batchfile: 708

Swift: 577

Emacs Lisp: 556

Svelte: 366

Rust: 351

CMake: 342

Haskell: 326

Lua: 300

Roff: 268

XSLT: 176

Assembly: 167

NSIS: 130

Objective-C: 128

SCSS: 90

Less: 77

PLpgSQL: 66

Objective-C++: 61

Inno Setup: 59

Meson: 41

WebAssembly: 25

ASL: 22

PowerShell: 21

Rich Text Format: 21

GLSL: 18

Common Lisp: 16

Haml: 14

Scheme: 13

Dockerfile: 12

Perl: 12

AIDL: 11

M4: 7

Mustache: 7

D: 5

MDX: 5

SourcePawn: 2

M: 2

Pug: 2

Lex: 1

EJS: 1

The original data

(NOTE: I am NOT looking for criticism on any choices made here)

Original data

HuggingChat

TypeScript 62.1%

Svelte 36.6%

Dockerfile 0.4%

JavaScript 0.4%

HTML 0.2%

Shell 0.1%

Other 0.2%

GPT4ALL

C++ 48.2%

QML 32.3%

Python 8.5%

CMake 5.4%

JavaScript 3.9%

C 1.0%

Other 0.7%

Audacity

C 37.6%

C++ 35.3%

Python 18.1%

Shell 2.8%

Common Lisp 1.6%

QML 1.3%

Other 3.3%

Duplicati

C# 87.3%

JavaScript 5.7%

HTML 3.2%

Less 1.8%

Python 1.2%

Shell 0.4%

Other 0.4%

Vorta

Python 99.2%

Other 0.8%

Filen (Desktop)

TypeScript 96.3%

JavaScript 2.1%

HTML 1.2%

NSIS 0.4%

Monero

C++ 81.7%

C 11.7%

Python 3.2%

CMake 2.0%

Makefile 0.5%

Shell 0.4%

Other 0.5%

Ivy Wallet

Kotlin 99.7%

Other 0.3%

Brasero

C 98.1%

Makefile 1.5%

Other 0.4%

VSCodium

Shell 83.8%

XSLT 16.0%

PowerShell 0.2%

GNU Emacs

Emacs Lisp 55.6%

Roff 23.8%

C 16.4%

M4 0.7%

Objective-C 0.6%

C++ 0.5%

Other 2.4%

GitLab

Ruby 69.2%

JavaScript 17.3%

Vue 6.8%

PLpgSQL 2.9%

Haml 1.4%

HTML 0.9%

Other 1.5%

Codeberg

Clojure 87.8%

Shell 3.9%

CSS 2.3%

HTML 2.2%

Batchfile 2.2%

PowerShell 1.0%

Other 0.6%

Wikipedia (MediaWiki)

PHP 82.7%

JavaScript 15.3%

Less 1.1%

CSS 0.8%

HTML 0.1%

Vue 0.0%

7-Zip

C++ 79.3%

C 17.6%

Assembly 1.6%

Makefile 1.5%

PeaZip

Pascal 91.7%

Inno Setup 5.9%

Batchfile 1.8%

C++ 0.4%

Shell 0.1%

C 0.1%

qBittorrent

C++ 71.0%

JavaScript 14.1%

HTML 11.5%

Python 1.1%

CSS 0.8%

CMake 0.7%

Other 0.8%

osu!

C# 100.0%

2048

CSS 54.9%

JavaScript 38.1%

HTML 6.5%

Ruby 0.5%

Wireshark

C 95.2%

C++ 2.4%

Python 1.1%

Perl 0.3%

CMake 0.3%

SourcePawn 0.2%

Other 0.5%

nmap

C 38.0%

Lua 29.0%

C++ 17.3%

Shell 4.6%

Python 4.3%

Makefile 1.9%

Other 4.9%

VirtualBox

C 67.2%

C++ 25.2%

Python 2.8%

Objective-C 1.7%

Assembly 1.4%

D 0.5%

Other 1.2%

Docker

Go 97.5%

Shell 1.5%

Dockerfile 0.5%

PowerShell 0.3%

Makefile 0.1%

Python 0.1%

calibre

Python 79.2%

C 17.1%

C++ 2.8%

HTML 0.3%

Shell 0.2%

XSLT 0.1%

Other 0.3%

Thunderbird

JavaScript 60.5%

C++ 21.5%

HTML 6.6%

CSS 3.8%

C 1.8%

Java 1.7%

Other 4.1%

Betterbird

Batchfile 66.5%

C 18.3%

C++ 10.1%

Shell 5.1%

draw.io (Desktop)

JavaScript 96.0%

Shell 4.0%

Joplin

TypeScript 71.4%

JavaScript 22.3%

HTML 1.9%

CSS 1.3%

Java 1.2%

Mustache 0.7%

Other 1.2%

LibreOffice

C++ 86.6%

Java 5.5%

Python 1.8%

Makefile 1.6%

XSLT 1.5%

Rich Text Format 1.4%

Other 1.6%

Proton Mail (Web)

TypeScript 92.1%

JavaScript 5.2%

SCSS 1.5%

MDX 0.5%

Swift 0.4%

CSS 0.1%

Other 0.2%

F-Droid

Java 65.3%

Kotlin 33.1%

Other 1.6%

Aurora Store

Kotlin 96.8%

Java 2.8%

AIDL 0.4%

Neo-Store

Kotlin 100.0%

Obtainium

Dart 98.7%

Other 1.3%

Droid-ify

Kotlin 99.6%

Shell 0.4%

IzzyOnDroid

PHP 97.2%

Python 2.5%

Shell 0.3%

Accrescent

Kotlin 100.0%

GNOME Software

C 97.0%

Meson 1.2%

Python 1.1%

Other 0.7%

Flathub

TypeScript 74.0%

Python 24.2%

JavaScript 1.1%

Shell 0.4%

SCSS 0.2%

Dockerfile 0.1%

SearXNG

Python 74.7%

Shell 9.9%

HTML 6.1%

Less 4.8%

JavaScript 2.7%

CSS 0.9%

Other 0.9%

GrapheneOS

Makefile 87.1%

C++ 11.3%

Shell 1.6%

GNOME

C 97.3%

Meson 2.3%

Python 0.4%

KDE Plasma

C++ 45.6%

QML 41.2%

C 5.5%

CMake 2.3%

Python 2.2%

JavaScript 1.9%

Other 1.3%

Arch Linux

C 98.4%

Assembly 0.7%

Shell 0.4%

Python 0.2%

Makefile 0.2%

Perl 0.1%

HeliBoard

Java 45.4%

C++ 34.7%

Kotlin 19.2%

Other 0.7%

Blender

C++ 76.3%

Python 14.6%

C 5.0%

GLSL 1.8%

CMake 1.2%

Objective-C++ 1.0%

Other 0.1%

FreeCAD

C++ 52.7%

Python 44.5%

C 1.5%

CMake 0.8%

NSIS 0.2%

Lex 0.1%

Other 0.2%

Krita

C++ 90.2%

Python 3.0%

C 2.3%

CMake 1.6%

HTML 0.7%

Rich Text Format 0.7%

Other 1.5%

GIMP

C 95.5%

Scheme 1.3%

Python 1.1%

C++ 0.7%

Meson 0.6%

Perl 0.4%

Other 0.4%

Flameshot

C++ 87.8%

CMake 5.8%

Shell 3.3%

Python 1.7%

Roff 1.1%

C 0.2%

Other 0.1%

Inkscape

C++ 94.1%

C 1.7%

CMake 1.5%

HTML 1.4%

Python 0.3%

Aegis

Java 96.0%

HTML 2.1%

Roff 1.9%

VeraCrypt

C 68.8%

C++ 19.0%

Assembly 10.0%

Shell 1.1%

Makefile 0.5%

Batchfile 0.3%

Other 0.3%

KeePassXC

C++ 95.1%

CMake 2.2%

Shell 1.5%

PowerShell 0.6%

Objective-C++ 0.4%

Python 0.1%

Other 0.1%

KeePassDX

Kotlin 79.0%

C 14.0%

Java 4.1%

Assembly 2.6%

C++ 0.2%

Ruby 0.1%

addy.io

Blade 83.2%

JavaScript 5.2%

Vue 4.8%

PHP 4.5%

CSS 2.3%

Mullvad VPN

Rust 35.1%

Swift 26.2%

Kotlin 19.5%

TypeScript 13.2%

C++ 2.8%

Shell 1.8%

Other 1.4%

Alovoa

Java 82.7%

HTML 9.8%

JavaScript 3.6%

CSS 2.8%

Other 1.1%

Briar

Java 98.0%

Kotlin 1.9%

Other 0.1%

SimpleX Chat

Haskell 32.6%

Kotlin 32.3%

Swift 26.9%

HTML 2.2%

TypeScript 1.4%

JavaScript 1.1%

Other 3.5%

Medito

Dart 88.5%

Kotlin 8.0%

Ruby 2.0%

Swift 0.7%

CMake 0.2%

C++ 0.2%

Other 0.4%

coreboot

C 94.4%

ASL 2.2%

Makefile 1.0%

C++ 0.7%

Assembly 0.4%

Perl 0.4%

Other 0.9%

Libreboot

Shell 51.5%

Python 25.1%

C 22.2%

Makefile 1.2%

OpenStreetMap

Ruby 78.1%

HTML 8.7%

JavaScript 6.9%

PLpgSQL 3.7%

SCSS 1.2%

C++ 0.7%

Other 0.7%

OsmAnd

Java 95.3%

Kotlin 3.9%

AIDL 0.7%

CSS 0.1%

Shell 0.0%

XSLT 0.0%

Organic Maps

C++ 71.0%

C 7.5%

Java 6.1%

Swift 3.5%

Objective-C++ 3.1%

Python 2.9%

Other 5.9%

VLC Media Player

C 62.6%

C++ 18.9%

Objective-C 8.3%

QML 3.1%

Makefile 1.6%

Lua 1.0%

Other 4.5%

Stremio (Desktop)

C++ 36.7%

QML 17.6%

NSIS 12.4%

JavaScript 10.7%

Shell 9.1%

CMake 4.1%

Other 9.4%

OBS Studio

C 54.6%

C++ 34.7%

CMake 6.1%

Objective-C 2.2%

Objective-C++ 1.6%

M 0.2%

Other 0.6%

NewPipe

Java 84.0%

Kotlin 13.5%

HTML 2.5%

FreeTube

JavaScript 68.5%

Vue 17.2%

CSS 11.2%

SCSS 3.0%

EJS 0.1%

Invidious

Crystal 73.8%

HTML 13.9%

JavaScript 8.2%

CSS 2.6%

Shell 1.1%

Makefile 0.2%

Dockerfile 0.2%

PeerTube

TypeScript 89.7%

HTML 6.5%

SCSS 3.1%

Shell 0.4%

Pug 0.2%

JavaScript 0.1%

Tubular

Java 84.6%

Kotlin 13.0%

HTML 2.4%

Mullvad Browser

JavaScript 28.1%

C++ 25.7%

HTML 22.3%

C 12.4%

Python 2.8%

Tor Browser

JavaScript 28.2%

C++ 25.6%

HTML 22.3%

C 12.4%

Python 2.9%

uBlock Origin

JavaScript 88.4%

CSS 4.9%

HTML 3.4%

WebAssembly 2.5%

Shell 0.6%

Python 0.1%

Makefile 0.1%

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

python makes solid backends - especially ones that deal with things like 3rd party APIs and data munging, which makes it a pretty good choice for a lot of web-based privacy apps like alternative front-ends

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How exactly is it good for backends except for simplicity of creation?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Simplicity of maintenance, and these help with good security.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

This makes some sense but the performance sacrifice is too big imo.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

performance is basically irrelevant… when you’re a professional software engineer, ease of maintenance - adding new features, bug fixes, keeping bugs out of the code base - is paramount… you can always throw more servers at it, because they’re cheap compared to labour and mistakes

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

But how about desktops? You're just creating e-waste with that ideas.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

it’s still better than electron?

performance of the underlying programming language is basically the least of our concerns

we don’t get new computers because things become less efficient - we get new computers because we demand new features and software gets more complex… e-waste isn’t created because software is using python - e-waste is created because consumers demand fancy animations and gestures and things that programmers have to add, and it’s inefficient to pay a human to write those things in a low level language

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

This is 100% not true. Most users don't care about fancy animations and stuff like that. I hope you will understand it at some point and if not, I just hope you stop creating software and spreading these ridiculous Big Tech inspired ideas.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

users care about a polished product and don’t actually give a shit about privacy TBH - it’s not a fact that is particularly fun, but it’s the truth… users don’t care about technology as long as their thing does what they want and makes them feel good for doing it. animations are intended to guide the user between actions - show that A action led to B state… users don’t care about animations, but animations often make software easier to use, and users DO care about that in UX test after UX test

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Bruh I didn't say anything about privacy but optimization for older devices. I suggest you see a doctor because you seem to have quite noticeable issues with understanding what you read. Also a product can be polished and optimized at the same time.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

no; i’m simply saying that users like us are not the typical users. it’s irrelevant what you’d like to be true - engineering concerns and “good products” - users don’t care about that… usability and features are more important by far than performance and efficiency and this has been shown time and time again in UX research

and i’m not the 1 resorting to personal attacks, so perhaps reevaluate your position if it’s so weak that that’s all you can muster in response

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I don't think there's a point in arguing with you. Unfortunately some people are just too rich to understand the issues with planned obsolescence.

Also I knew that my previous reply could be considered a personal offense. However it was not. Your behavior seems concerning and doesn't seem related to any obvious reasons such as limited language knowledge. This is why I suggested you to check on your health. Most illnesses are much easier to treat before they go really far.