That is certainly true but I wonder if this effect is exaggerated by the methodology of this study.
If they simply count existing lines of code/SO questions and none of those ever get deleted, then inertia is bound to increase.
The more old lines of code/questions there are, the longer it takes for any new language to rise in the rankings, even if the new language is used for all new code.
But I don't know enough about the methodology of this study. Maybe they are doing something against this statistical incumbency effect.
That reasoning is plausible, but a large portion of their longevity could easily be due to network effects (libraries + legacy code) and nothing to do with the quality of the languages.
Well is there really any incentive to change? Code is just a method of communication with the computer, just like language is. Sure a country like France could move over to speaking English instead of French and probably be a little better off for it, but fundamentally, French gets the job done just fine. There's too much inertia to change amongst established companies I think.
