Study Says Linux Getting Most Converts From Windows

Contrary to popular opinion, Linux is getting most of its converts from Windows rather than Unix, research firm Evans Data said Monday. More than half of Linux developers, 52%, formerly wrote primarily for Windows, while only 30% came from Unix, Evans Data said.

Linux's three top strengths, the developers told Evans Data, include stability; the fact that Linux is open source; and cost, the research firm said. Commercial software will find it difficult to compete with Linux because of Linux's open-source nature and the low cost, it said.

Other findings of the study:

- Developers said Linux tools need improvement. In all, 61% of developers surveyed said compilers are of critical importance, yet almost 25% rated compilers currently available for Linux as either merely "adequate" or "needs work."- More than half of developers (56%) , said 64-bit architectures are important for their companies to develop to, but many developers still use Intel's 32-bit architecture. Evans Data interpreted the data by concluding that developers are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the 64-bit architecture rather than moving to it in the near term. - Thirty-six percent of developers expect to migrate to the 2.6 Linux kernel within six months to a year after its release. The new kernel is expected to improve scalability across a greater number of processors and provide enhanced multithreading.