North American Developers Turning Away from Windows, Latest Evans Data Survey Shows

July 3, 2007; 09:26 AM
Windows dominance on the client is cracking, according to the latest release of Evans Data Corp’s North American Development Survey. Targeting of the Windows OS has declined by 12% from a year ago, continuing a two-year gradual decline. Currently 64.8% of North American developers are targeting some version of Windows, as opposed to 74% last year. Further, this is expected to drop another 2% in the coming year. Although Windows remains the largest market segment, Linux targeting has increased by 34% from 8.8% targeting a year ago to 11.8% today.

“If we look back over the 10 year trend we’ve been tracking on OS targeting,” said John Andrews, President and CEO of Evans Data, “it’s clear that a shift away from Windows began about two years ago, and the data shows that this migration is now accelerating. Linux has benefited, but we also see corresponding growth in niche operating systems for non-traditional client devices. The landscape is changing.”

The Spring 2007 North American Development survey is the 19th volume in a comprehensive bi-annual survey series began in 1998. Other findings from the survey of over 400 software developers and IT managers include:

• Javascript is the most widely used scripting language - with more than three times the users of PHP, Ruby, or Python, but use of Ruby is expected to increase by 50% within the coming year.
• Though targeting is dropping, use of Windows on the development desktop remains steady.
• A third of North American developers are currently working with virtualization, and 42.5% expect to be adopting this within the next year.

About Evans Data Corporation

Evans Data Corporation (www.evansdata.com) provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence based on in-depth surveys of the global developer population. Evans' syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.

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