KEY POINTS:
Windows long-time dominance on the market is waning, according to the latest Evans Data survey.
The North American Development Survey says targeting of the operating system has been slipping for the past two years, with a 12 percent drop recorded over the past 12 months.
As it stands, 64.8 percent of developers are working on software for various versions of Windows, and it is expected to lose another 2 percent over the coming year.
"If we look back over the 10 trend that we've been tracking on OS targeting, it's clear that a shift away from Windows began about two years ago," said Evans Data CEO John Andrews.
"The data shows that this migration is now accelerating."
Linux targeting has increased to give the open source OS an 11.8 percent share of US developer attention.
"Linux has benefited," said Andrews, "but we also see corresponding growth in niche operating systems for non-traditional client devices. The landscape is changing."
The survey of 400 software developers and IT managers also found that despite Windows targeting is going backwards, Microsoft's system has remained steady as the development platform of choice.
It also found that Javascript is the most widely used scripting language, with treble the number of PHP, Ruby and Python users. It noted that the use of Ruby is expected to increase by 50 percent in the coming year.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
