Developers diss Windows client

The Windows client hegemony is breaking down with developers targeting different operating systems and multiple client devices.

The latest Evans Data Corp poll of North American developers found 12 per cent fewer building applications for Windows than a year ago.

According to EDC 64.8 per cent of developers are targeting some form of Windows compared to 74 per cent last year. The analyst firm, which sampled some 400 developers, expects this number will drop by a further two per cent in the coming year.

While the number of developers writing for Linux has increased to 11.8 per cent, up from 8.8 per cent last year, EDC reckons there is also growth in "niche operating systems for non-traditional client devices".

The poll comes in the wake of last week's Europa update to the open source Eclipse framework. Europa updates the Rich Client Platform (RCP) project which IBM has seized on as a way for developers to build client applications that can be deployed on Linux and Mac in addition to Windows. The next IBM Lotus Notes, version 8.0 and codenamed Hannover, is moving to RCP.®