I think folks just don't talk about Python, they get things done.
While I think, say, other areas also get things done, Rails developers are more likely to blog and have pretty fonts. Nothing against that, it just seems to be the case.
While metrics show there's more Python out there, it's just not exciting, it doesn't change a lot, and it just works. And that's fine too.
I find myself thinking (hoping) this is the case too. In fact, writing the post to talk about Python at this level was indirectly inspired by a talk I heard at Code Genius (http://code.genius.com/), put on by the Ruby-based Rap Genius Engineering team.
With respect to metrics, I think having the baseline is important, and you're right. I also found myself looking for more granular metrics then what I was able to find. I really want to be able to answer questions like
- "Within Python, how is usage shifting between web apps, scientific work (both research prototyping and in practice), open source, machine learning, etc.?"
- "How are the 'frameworks on top of frameworks' like Flask-RESTful and Django Rest Framework changing in adoption over time?"
- "Is anyone actually adopting Python 3 as their default yet?"
I wasn't quite able to find that data, but if anyone has ideas for first steps in getting there, I'd be happy to contribute (email in profile).
On my end (east coast US), I hear the Python/data/analytics things a lot but haven't directly encountered those companies.
Python was at least previously big in a lot of local shops doing a lot of systems programming type stuff (management apps) -- including folks like Red Hat and HP, including my old one (Ansible). Startups are still highly likely to use it.
There are enough Django shops around, including at least one major Django consultancy-type shop, but it feels like slightly more (but not much more) rails on the web side.
I'm not plugged into the industry biotech to know how much Python is floating around, but I think it's probably pretty common, just that those folks travel in slightly different circles and we don't cross polinate enough.
"Is anyone actually adopting Python 3 as their default yet?"
Almost certaintly someone has, the real question is what percentage and what characterizes them :)
While I think, say, other areas also get things done, Rails developers are more likely to blog and have pretty fonts. Nothing against that, it just seems to be the case.
While metrics show there's more Python out there, it's just not exciting, it doesn't change a lot, and it just works. And that's fine too.