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92 percent of developers ignoring Vista?

updated 01:35 pm EDT, Mon June 16, 2008

92 pc Devs Ignoring Vista

Despite Microsoft's efforts, the majority of developers still aren't writing with Windows Vista in mind, a new study by Evans Data says. Only eight percent of software firms surveyed were specifically coding with Vista in mind, while additional data brought together by CNET indicates that 49 percent are still writing for Windows XP; 13 percent are programming for Linux, according to reports.

Vista development is predicted to improve for 2009 in the report but will still include just 24 percent of all developers despite the absence of XP from the market; the software is officially phased out from all but budget nettop PCs and similar netbooks, such as the ASUS Eee PC.

Statistics for the improvement of other operating systems, including Linux and Mac OS X, is unavailable but believed to show improvement. About 380 percent more developers than in the past are said to be writing for Macs either exclusively or as part of a wider release.

The hesitation isn't explained by Evans but is believed to stem both from technical hurdles with Vista as well as satisfaction with XP. Microsoft's decisions to remove direct access to the operating system, as well as to require permissions requests, have left developers preferring the earlier platform. Microsoft's efforts to shore up Windows XP security have also eliminated many of the reasons to transition to Vista.

These and public perception issues are believed to be particularly damaging for Microsoft's sales to corporate users, who may cost the company nearly $400 million in sales for 2009 as they avoid moving to Vista over back compatibility and system performance issues.

 
Previous Comments

I know that I'm not!

06/16, 02:23pm reply

My employer is an ISV and the powers-that-be issued a decree that we would NOT be writing software for Vista for the foreseeable future.

We aren't even allowed to run it on our desktops!

Ashari

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2003

+10

lol

06/16, 02:47pm (1 reply) reply

And 92 percent of developers jumping on the iPhone bandwagon. :)

Peter Bonte

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

-3

End users avoiding also

06/16, 03:42pm reply

End users are avoiding Vista too. Fortunately, we are not deploying it this summer on campus....another year of reprieve.

Mr. Strat

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2002

+6

big deal...

06/16, 04:54pm (1 reply) reply

Nice way to write an article, guys. They aren't ignoring vista, they're just not writing programs specifically for Vista. And why would anyone (unless you're working on internal programs for a particular customer).

I'd like to know how many Mac developers are specifically developing for Leopard (and throwing all those Tiger users out the window with a big "We don't care about you idiots! Upgrade or die!")

testudo

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

-8

wrong

06/16, 05:51pm reply

"They aren't ignoring vista"
did you read the same article i did?
they are ignoring vista, they're writing for xp. leopard developers are writing for tiger as well, these people aren't even attempting to write for vista. it's in english, what's the problem.

old and bitter.

nat

Junior Member

Joined: Mar 2002

+2

Leopard vs. Vista

06/16, 06:29pm reply

The only "Vista" app I can think of is (the pretty lackluster) Halo 3; on the Mac side, there are dozens of companies with apps that are either Leopard only (FileMaker's Bento) or have significant new functionality under Leopard while retaining 10.4 support.

By not writing "for" Vista, the developers are in effect just writing for XP hoping that Vista won't mess things up too badly. That's a big vote of no confidence in the "new" Vista OS.

dimmer

Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Feb 2006

+6

i refuse...

06/16, 09:44pm reply

...to write for vista until they switch to cocoa/obj-c and port Xcode to win32. oh, and i'm gonna need to see some pigs flying, too.

flur

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2002

-2

Vista

06/17, 07:01am reply

Well, no wonder why they are ignoring it. Vista is JUNK. I bought a brand new Dell w/ Vista on it and right out of the box it CRASHED! I ended up wiping the HD and loading Linux on it. Problem solved!

JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

Guest

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 1999

+3

Not Correct

06/17, 07:03am (1 reply) reply

Please dont campare Linux with windows

Guest

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 1999

-9

love it!

06/17, 08:02am reply

All that leopard software, and all you get is generalities and "Bento" (which is from an Apple-sponsored company).

testudo

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

+1

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