Targeting of the Windows operating system has declined by 12 percent from a year ago, continuing a two-year gradual decline. Currently 64.8 percent of North American developers are targeting some version of Windows, as opposed to 74 percent last year. Further, this is expected to drop another two percent in the coming year. Although Windows remains the largest market segment, Linux targeting has increased by 34 percent from 8.8 percent targeting a year ago to 11. 4 percent today. Evans Data also surveyed developer plans for such platforms as Unix and Mac OS but did not release those numbers (although we're trying to get our hands on 'em).

"If we look back over the 10 year trend we’ve been tracking on OS targeting, it’s clear that a shift away from Windows began about two years ago, and the data shows that this migration is now accelerating," says John Andrews, president and CEO of Evans Data, Other findings from the survey of over 400 software developers and IT managers include:

° Javascript is the most widely used scripting language -- with more than three times the users of PHP, Ruby, or Python, but use of Ruby is expected to increase by 50 percent within the coming year.

° Though targeting is dropping, use of Windows on the development desktop remains steady.

° A third of North American developers are currently working with virtualization, and 42.5% expect to be adopting this within the next year.