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Eclipse Users Have Begun Migrating To Linux At A Growing Rate
By: Savio Rodrigues
Expert Author
2009-06-02
Ian Skerrett just posted 6 Insights from the Eclipse Community Survey. They're all very interesting, but Insight #1 is really surprising. Ian writes: "Insight #1 - Linux is doing really well at the expense of Windows." Ian bases this on the following data:
It's long been held that developers build applications on Windows regardless of which operating system the (server side) application will be deployed on. This Eclipse data suggests a change might be underway.
Is anyone else surprised that nearly half (27 percent vs. 64 percent) as many Eclipse users build applications on Linux as they do on Windows? Frankly, I've worked with more customers whose developers build applications on Mac OS X than on Linux; emphasis on the word "on" vs. "for". None the less, this data should definitely get some attention from folks over at Microsoft.
Yes, these results are based on Eclipse users and do not account for the Visual Studio developers who are 100% on Windows. But let's say Eclipse and Eclipse based tooling is used by (as little as?) one-third of all enterprise developers, it's still a large enough audience that Microsoft needs to keep on Windows. Maybe there is work that Microsoft could do to optimize Eclipse for Windows; much like Microsoft has done with PHP and Windows?
More worrisome (to Microsoft) is the fact that Linux has secured the #1 position for deployment operating systems amongst Eclipse users. In related news, Sun Solaris/OpenSolaris fared no better, declining from 8% in 2007 to 5.2% in 2009.
My data analysis spidey senses are tingling. I'd love to have more time with this data! But alas, life calls…
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About the Author:
Savio Rodrigues is a product manager with IBM's WebSphere Software division. He envisions a day when open source and traditional software live in harmony. This site contains Savio's personal views. IBM does not necessarily agree with the views expressed here.
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