92 per cent of developers ignoring Microsoft Vista OS

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Microsoft is trying to get rid of Windows XP and wants everyone to switch to Vista but instead Windows XP is getting the lion's share of action. Evans Data statistics shows only 8 per cent of developers writing applications for Vista compared to 49 per cent of developers writing applications for Windows XP, even after Microsoft wanted to pull away the support for XP.

How do Microsoft’s rivals fare? Nearly 13 percent of developers are writing applications for Linux this year and 15.5 per cent for next year. Mac OS on the other hand has seen phenomenal growth and has increased by 380 per cent this year.

The numbers improve for Vista next year about 24 per cent but still lags behind the numbers compared to XP (29 per cent). If it can’t get developers to write more for Vista, then it will be better for Microsoft to focus on the next OS or try to build on XP.

News.com cites the following reason for the declining numbers in Vista, which is making it very difficult for developers to build applications:
Unfortunately, that improved security posture makes it more difficult for developers to write applications for Vista (read: no more kernel-level access and UAC to worry about), and it also causes compatibility problems with older applications. Ironically, the wave of attacks targeting operating system vulnerabilities has largely passed, and today hackers have moved on to target applications. At the same time, Microsoft has provided iterative improvements in Windows XP security, bolstering its status as "good enough" and further eating into Vista's pie.

News.com advises Microsoft.com to have a better developer support otherwise it will lose even more OS share to Mac and Linux.

Another advice nugget for Microsoft would be to concentrate on the OS fully instead of trying to become "Jack of All Trades" by trying to buy Yahoo.