Closing in on the Tipping Point

If users are a software company's bread and butter today, developers are the future. That's why Microsoft has built up such an impressive developers' programme. Keep them sweet, and you keep tomorrow safe.

Well, that was the theory, but something seems to be going wrong. The latest of the by-now venerable Evans Data reports on developers shows some pretty amazing trends.

Try these for size:

developers said that in the next 12 to 18 months they expect to be developing more Linux apps than Windows apps.

...

developers with Linux chops report that their top two development choices are Web-based interfaces and rich client applications. This was expected because these types of apps have such wide usage.

The No. 3 choice, however, falls under the category of “emerging market”: Linux desktop apps.

...

The organizations that these developers work for (or are aligned with) will be taking a look at many open source applications in the next two years, the survey finds.

A hefty 69% will consider open source browser Firefox, with 70% planning on considering application development software.

Also interesting is the popularity of code re-use:

developers are using chunks of code from the open source library, or open source third party solutions, to complete their own projects.

The survey finds the practice is particularly popular because of today’s tight development cycles. Also driving popularity is the cornucopia of open source choices that are now available. Some 32% of developers say “ease of use” prompts them to use pre-written open source code, with 25% reporting “quality” as their rationale.

Is that the sound of a bandwagon approaching? (Via Tuxmachines.org.)