{"id":1568,"date":"2009-06-30T08:39:32","date_gmt":"2009-06-30T07:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/1568-whos-using-eclipse-and-what-for.html"},"modified":"2009-06-30T08:39:32","modified_gmt":"2009-06-30T07:39:32","slug":"eclipse-survey-shows-windows-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/1568-eclipse-survey-shows-windows-decline.html","title":{"rendered":"Eclipse survey shows Windows decline"},"content":{"rendered":"

In May 2009 the open source Eclipse project surveyed its users. Visitors to the Eclipse<\/a> site were asked to complete a survey, and 1365 did so. That\u2019s out of around 1 million visitors, which shows how much we all hate surveys. Anyway, this report<\/a> [pdf] was the result. A similar survey<\/a> [pdf] was carried out in 2007, potentially making a valuable comparison, though the earlier survey has different questions making direct comparisons difficult in most cases, which is a shame. I especially missed the detail on which Eclipse projects are used most which is well covered in the 2007 report.<\/p>\n

Here is what I found interesting. First, there\u2019s a shift towards Linux and Apple Mac in the desktops developers use for Eclipse. In 2007 it was 73.8% Windows, 20% Linux and 3.5% Mac. In 2009 it is 64% Windows, 26.9% Linux and 6.9% Mac.<\/p>\n

This is echoed in deployment platforms too (client and server). In 2007 it was 46.5% Windows, 36.6% Linux, 1% Mac; today it is 40.5% Windows, 42.7% Linux, 3% Mac.<\/p>\n

Those surveyed were asked what other IDEs they used. I noticed that Microsoft Visual Studio and NetBeans feature fairly strongly; I also noticed that Embarcadero\u2019s JBuilder is hardly a blip on the chart \u2013 intriguing, given how popular this used to be in the pre-Eclipse era.<\/p>\n

The most popular code management tool is Subversion (57.5%) followed by CVS (20%). For build tools, Ant (33.4%) and Maven (18%).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an intriguing one: I often hear that Java is only successful on the server. That presumption is not supported by this survey. 23.4% said that desktop client apps are the primary type of software they are developing, compared to 30.2% server, and 24.7% web or RIA apps.<\/p>\n

The preferred app server is Apache Tomcat (34.8%) followed by JBoss (12.7%) and Websphere (6.9%).<\/p>\n

The most popular database manager is MySQL (27.7%) followed by Oracle (27.3%). That\u2019s 55% for Sun+Oracle, of course, though bear in mind that many of the MySQL users are likely attracted by its free licence.<\/p>\n

Before drawing too many conclusions, bear in mind that it is a small sample self-selected by people willing to take the survey; apparently it was also featured by a German technology site which resulted in a larger response from German visitors.<\/p>\n

Although it suggests a declining use of Windows – which is especially plausible given the trend towards web applications – it does not prove it beyond the Eclipse community.<\/p>\n

And next time \u2013 how about using the same questions, which would make it possible to identify trends?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also written about Eclipse here: The Eclipse Conundrum: can it grow without hurting its contributors<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Technorati Tags: eclipse<\/a>,java<\/a>,visual studio<\/a>,ibm<\/a>,windows<\/a>,linux<\/a>,mac<\/a>,apachce<\/a>,jboss<\/a>,jbuilder<\/a>,embarcadero<\/a>,mysql<\/a>,oracle<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In May 2009 the open source Eclipse project surveyed its users. Visitors to the Eclipse site were asked to complete a survey, and 1365 did so. That\u2019s out of around 1 million visitors, which shows how much we all hate surveys. Anyway, this report [pdf] was the result. A similar survey [pdf] was carried out … Continue reading Eclipse survey shows Windows decline<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,41,44,49,55,62,63,79,80,94,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eclipse","category-ibm","category-internet","category-java","category-microsoft","category-open-source","category-oracle","category-software","category-software-development","category-visual-studio","category-windows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}