Since GitHub's launch in 2008, the ranking of programming languages on the platform has shifted, reflecting changes in their relative popularity as detected by Linguist in both public and private repositories, excluding forks. Ruby initially gained prominence due to Ruby on Rails' presence on GitHub from the beginning. However, between 2008 and 2015, Java saw significant growth, rising from 7th to 2nd place, likely influenced by the increasing popularity of Android and the demand for version control platforms in the business and enterprise sectors.