Windows loses ground with developers
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Microsoft's Windows platform is losing traction as a target for application developers in North America.
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Is open source becoming the dumping ground for no-longer-wanted software, sort of like a Salvation Army dropoff point for programs instead of old clothes?
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The impending launch of Microsoft's new operating system isn't generating the excitement it once might have. Maybe that's because it, well, gets the job done
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Microsoft is applying for a patent for an operating system that starts out crippled.  You must pay to do things like take the throttle off network speed, disk access, install drivers, install software, and more.  Trust me, I rarely even visit Groklaw, even if this is my second consecutive blog entry with a link to a Groklaw article. My VarLinux.org readers posted the article, A Brave New Modular World, and I had to share it.
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Windows beats Linux in total cost of 'ownership.' Hold on, that's not a good thing.
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Linux's server growth is slowing vis-a-vis Windows server growth.  The reasons are several.  The answer is clear: take on Microsoft directly.
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Another lawsuit and a big technical delay for Longhorn. Misery, thy name is Microsoft.
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Microsoft is, for once, trying to play nicely.  This is why it's failing.
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Microsoft Corp.'s retreat from its Longhorn ambitions and its decision to add several Longhorn technologies to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 may rob the next Windows release of its glamor, but users and developers gain more than they lose, some observers said Friday.
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Blog: Microsoft has screwed up yet another standards effort.  This is getting old.
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Even with the operating system released to the public, Microsoft cannot seem to catch a break with Windows Vista. The latest complaints come from game developers, who say the OS' parental controls are so strict they're disrupting gameplay.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft's Windows platform is losing traction as a target for application developers in North America but still is the dominant platform, according to Evans Data survey results being released on Tuesday. A survey this spring of more than 400 developers and IT managers in North America found that the number of developers targeting Windows for their applications declined 12 percent from a year ago. Just 64.8 percent targeted the platform as opposed to 74 percent in 2006. "We attribute [the decline] largely to the increase in developers beginning to target Linux and different Linux [distributions]. Both Novell and Red Hat are the two dominant ones right now," said John Andrews, the CEO of Evans Data. The arrival of Windows Vista likely only kept the numbers from being even worse. "I think Vista probably offset some of the decline," Andrews said. The share for Windows is expected to drop another 2 percent, to about 63 percent, in the next year, Andrews said. The targeting of Linux by developers increased by 34 percent to 11.8 percent. It had been 8.8 a year ago, according to the survey. Linux targeting is expected to reach 16 percent over the next year. Evans views the situation as a battle of Windows versus open source with open source maturing, Andrews said. Windows remains tops, though. "They're still dominant, there's no doubt about it," said Andrews. Use of Windows on the development desktop remains steady. The survey, featuring developers at enterprises and solution providers like system integrators, covered both client and server application development. Evans Data said the shift away from Windows began about two years ago and is accelerating. Linux is benefiting as are nontraditional client devices. Evans Data also surveyed developer plans for such platforms as Unix and Mac OS but did not release those numbers. A Microsoft representative said Monday no one was available from the company to comment on the Evans Data report. Andrews said the verdict still is out on the full impact that open-source software is having on the commercial software market but noted that there will always be a place for both paradigms. In other findings in the Evans Data Spring North American Development survey, Evans found that JavaScript is the most widely used scripting language. It has more than three times the users of PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), Ruby, or Python. But Ruby usage is expected to increase by 50 percent within the coming year. Also gathering steam is virtualization. A third of developers surveyed are writing applications that support virtualization with 42.5 percent expected to adopt it within the next year.
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It&#39;s a market that could use a shake-up. Backup and recovery still can be too expensive and complex for many small and midsize companies that rely on Windows, but the software is vital to their businesses.
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Like many, I was pretty shocked by the recent Microsoft-EU deal to settle the long-running investigation into interoperability issues.  This was not so much because of the way Microsoft has used every kind of delaying tactic it could before eventually agreeing (for the nth time) to try harder in the future.  My real dismay was provoked by the gap between appearance and reality â a chasm that I think bodes ill for the future of open source. read more
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Ziff Davis - Efforts under way to revise the popular GNU General Public License could put additional pressure on Microsoft by the time it tries to push its long-awaited Windows upgrades out the door.
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Gone are the days when free software could blithely ignore what was happening in the world of proprietary code.  The two approaches are now inextricably intertwined as more and more users and companies choose to run both.  One paradoxical consequence of this is that as free software becomes more widely deployed, Microsoft's impact on it becomes greater.  Against this background, a recent shift in Microsoft's public statements about open source assumes a particular importance.
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From product keys to click behavior, application developers need to stop annoying their users.