Posted on 07/03/2007 6:54:01 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Microsoft's Windows platform is losing traction with application developers in North America, according to a survey by Evans Data.
A survey this spring of more than 400 developers and IT managers in North America found that the number of developers targeting Windows for their applications declined 12 percent from a year ago. Just 64.8 percent targeted the platform as opposed to 74 percent in 2006.
"We attribute [the decline] largely to the increase in developers beginning to target Linux and different Linux [distributions]. Both Novell and Red Hat are the two dominant ones right now," said John Andrews, the CEO of Evans Data.
The arrival of Windows Vista likely only kept the numbers from being even worse. "I think Vista probably offset some of the decline," Andrews said.
The share for Windows is expected to drop another 2-percent, to about 63 percent, in the next year, Andrews said.
The targeting of Linux by developers increased by 34 percent to 11.8 percent. It had been 8.8 a year ago, according to the survey. Linux targeting is expected to reach 16 percent over the next year.
Evans views the situation as a battle of Windows versus open source with open source maturing, Andrews said. Windows remains tops, though. "They're still dominant, there's no doubt about it," said Andrews. Use of Windows on the development desktop remains steady.
The survey, featuring developers at enterprises and solution providers like system integrators, covered both client and server application development.
Evans Data said the shift away from Windows began about two years ago and is accelerating. Linux is benefiting as are non-traditional client devices. Evans Data also surveyed developer plans for such platforms as Unix and Mac OS but did not release those numbers.
A Microsoft representative said Monday no one was available from the company to comment on the Evans Data report.
Andrews said the verdict still is out on the full impact that open-source software is having on the commercial software market but noted that there will always be a place for both paradigms.
In other findings in the Evans Data Spring North American Development survey, Evans found that JavaScript is the most widely used scripting language. It has more than three times the users of PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), Ruby, or Python. But Ruby usage is expected to increase by 50 percent within the coming year.
Also gathering steam is virtualisation. A third of developers surveyed are writing applications that support virtualisation with 42.5 percent expected to adopt it within the next year.
My own plan is to replace some of my home and office computers this year, while I can still get XP Pro, and then not do anything until at least 2009 when Vienna is released. From what I can tell, I shouldn't have any problems bypassing Vista entirely.
Although this doesn't seem to surprise you (it doesn't surprise me), it's amazing how close-minded and condescending the MS types continue to be.
Many home computer users are quite knowledgeable about many things, and are not afraid to learn and dig in to a new OS, given the proper motivation.
Microshaft has outdone itself with VISTA, motivation-wise...
DITTO
Very happy with Linux Mint
Nope, just tired of this guy constantly linking foreign sources that attack US intellectual property owners. Other US based sources show Linux use actually going down, as this article put out by an American Linux evangelist admits:
Has Linux adoption stabilised?
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/linux/locutus/archives/has-linux-adoption-stabilised-17230
He links to “the venerable W3schools website” and their “OS Statistics” which show Linux use going down about 10% the last several months, from 3.6% in January to 3.3% in May:
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp
Well if you're going to call him a liar, then certainly you have proof of your 99% claim? Why am I certain that you don't?
You can cry to the moderator if you want, but your posting history is clear and many if not most of the threads you create are to foreign sources. This one is full of inaccuracies too of course, if you can’t defend them or yourself maybe you shouldn’t create so many.
Once again—DO NOT POST TO ME
Well, given past history, don't you mean "2012 when Vienna is released"? :-)
Perhaps Microsoft could get lucky and the world will end before they have to release another OS.
You can request that someone doesn’t post to you, but I don’t think anyone’s under any obligation to agree to your request. I’d suggest just ignoring GE’s posts - I do, for the most part.
True. But given the lukewarm reaction to Vista, and the fact that the market doesn't see much of a need to adopt it (except by default when it is preinstalled on new hardware) I think it would behoove Microsoft to come out with a truly new OS sooner rather than later. One would think that a company that size could manage to bring on someone with decent project management skills, but we'll see.
I've been using Linux for two years, have used most of the major distributions and until a month ago never copiled anything. I've never needed to compile at all. Last month, I was simply playing.
Finding drivers for common hardware does not require compiling.
you forgot pclinuxos. imo much better and VERY easy to install.
I have used Mandrake/Mandriva as a primary OS for 5 years now and have NEVER had to compile anything.
It just works!!!
Have you ever tried to install Windows XP on a laptop? You will have the same problems UNLESS you first go out to discover all the drivers and applications you want to have installed. The installation headaches for newbies are not Linux exclusive. For very generic hardware, there is decent support if it is old enough. For anything newer, if you weren’t given the manufacturers driver disks, you have major problems - and those headaches would be even worse but for the fact that they have been catering to XP. Now, more manufacturers are beginning to see the advantages of supporting linux systems, and the installation of operating system and associated peripherals is becoming increasingly simplified. This article seems that there may be a snowball effect beginning now, and that hardware and software will be paying more attention to the non-MS world.
I think that must be it. GEs comments have been very defensive of MS for time immemorial. Say, BillG - is that you?
That is, er, uh, "less than accurate."
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