Santa Cruz, CA — (press release excerpt) — When asked which operating system they plan to target with most of their applications next year, international developers show a strikingly more pronounced acceptance of Linux than their North American colleagues. A recent survey published by industry research firm Evans Data Corporation finds that the targeting of Linux is not only expected to double next year… among International developers, but it is nearly twice that expected of developers in North America.

International software developers are showing a marked interest in the controversial OS, with 48.1% of those surveyed expecting to be involved in some Linux project in the coming year, compared to 39.6% of North Americans. This is significant, considering that only last year, less than a third of the international development community was writing Linux apps.

The most recent volume in the bi-annual Evans Data International Developer Survey Series will be released November 16, 2001. It is based on in-depth interviews with more than 400 developers representing over 70 countries, and provides detailed tracking and forecasting of international developer activities, attitudes, opinions and understandings.

Other key findings from the November 2001 survey:

• A strong gradual migration to Linux among the international development community is already underway — 37.8% of them have already written apps for Linux, compared to 33.7% of North American developers
  
• More than half of those surveyed have enough confidence in Linux to use it for mission-critical apps. The number of those who are 'absolutely' confident also continues to grow with each International Developer Survey, and surpasses that of North American developers

“Due to current economic conditions, Linux is starting to pick up a shine again because of its free licensing,” said Albion Butters, Evans Data analyst. “International developers seem to have even more confidence than their North American counterparts, who may continue to be put off by some of the traditional obstacles, such as lack of testing standards for the OS, possibilities of future forking and incompatibilities, and the lack of an accountable source for the operating system.”

The International Developer Survey is the sister survey to the North American Developer Survey, both conducted twice a year. The two have the same questionnaire but the International survey is conducted via e-mail with over 400 developers in over 70 countries outside of North America. This allows clients with a worldwide presence to spot deltas between the market segments. Each International survey is cross-tabulated by four regions — Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin/South America, and Middle East/Africa.

Evans Data Corporation provides market research focused on the software development community. The company maintains a panel of more than 12,000 developers worldwide. Custom quantitative and qualitative research is available, as well as subscriptions to the North American Developer Survey, the International Developer Survey, the Enterprise Development Management Issues survey series, the Linux Developer series, the Database Developer Survey, the Wireless Developer Survey and the Embedded Systems Developer Survey.

 
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