Fewer North American programmers are writing software for Windows, according to Evans Data Corporation (EDC). The market research firm said that about 65 percent of developers targeted Windows client operating systems in 2006, down from 74 percent the year before, and likely to fall another couple of points this year.

The EDC report was based on a survey of about 400 software developers, including enterprise developers as well as ISVs (independent software vendors) and VARs (value-added resellers), said spokesperson Lara Rogers. The survey apparently asked developers to identify their target OS(es) from a list that included Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and “various Unix flavors,” according to Rogers.

Some of Windows's marketshare loss appears to be Linux's gain. Client-side versions of the open source OS were targeted by 11.8 percent of developers in 2006, up from 3.3 percent the year before, the report suggests. John Andrews, CEO, stated, “It's clear that a shift away from Windows began about two years ago, and that this migration is accelerating. Linux has benefited, but we also see corresponding growth in niche operating systems for non-traditional client devices.”

Other survey findings reported by EDC include:

• Javascript is the most widely used scripting language, with more than three times the users of PHP, Ruby, or Python. However, Ruby use will grow 50 percent 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, while 42.5 percent expect to adopt it this year

The findings are from EDC's North American development survey, a twice-yearly survey administered for the 19th time this Spring.

 
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