Linux pulling developers from Windows?
updated 12:40 pm EDT, Tue July 3, 2007
Linux Pulls From Windows
It may be Linux which is drawing programmers away from supporting Windows, says a new survey from Evans Data. Where 75 percent of all coders expected to write programs for the Microsoft OS at this time in 2006, only 65 percent plan the same a year later. Linux development, in turn, grew from 9 to 12 percent -- a 34 percent spike in just a year's time, Evans says. Though the researchers wouldn't identify particular motivations, they noted that overall dissatisfaction with Windows as well as a move towards cellphones and other handhelds were likely causes.
"It's clear that a shift away [from] Windows began about two years ago and the data show that this migration is now accelerating," says company chief John Andrews. "Linux has benefited, but we also see corresponding growth in niche operating systems for non-traditional client devices."
The report contradicts the predictions of some observers in the past, many of whom had assumed that relatively advanced web platforms such as AJAX and Flash were rendering Windows irrelevant by reducing dependence on proprietary Microsoft formats both for conducting business and for communicating at home. [via CNET]
