North American software developers slower than others to adopt Linux

– by Robin “Roblimo” Miller –
Developers outside North America are more likely to write software for Linux than those based in the U.S. and Canada, according to survey results released Nov. 16 by Evans Data Corporation. But even in these laggard countries, the report says, 33.7 percent of developers have already written Linux applications, and 39.6 percent expect to be involved with Linux in the next year.
And over 48 percent of developers outside of North America say they expect to work with Linux next year, up from less than one third last year.

These numbers were culled from the Evans Data International Developer Survey, based on interviews with 400+ developers in more than 70 countries, and the Evans Data North American Developer Survey.

Besides North America, Evans breaks the world into four major regions: Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin/South America, and Middle East/Africa.

The survey also says that over 50 percent of all developers have enough confidence in Linux to use it in mission-critical applications, and that this percentage grows every year, with developers outside North America generally expressing more faith in Linux than those based in the U.S. and Canada.

“We tend to find that international developers embrace new technologies more readily than their North American colleagues. This could be due to the fact that many of them live amidst great cultural diversity, multilingualism, and rapid change, which may all contribute to a general openness toward new ideas and technologies,” says Albion Butters, the Evans Data Corporation analyst who wrote the report.

Butters also noted, in a press release issued by Evans Data Corporation before the report was released, that “due to current economic conditions, Linux is starting to pick up a shine again because of its free licensing.”