Developers slow to build on Windows Vista

Many developers are slow to target Microsoft’s Vista operating system, claims a survey by Evans Data Corp of 380 developers in North America. The predominant cause appears to be a lack of user interest in Windows Vista, though some growth is expected next year where Vista development is concerned.

Excerpt from ComputerWorld:

Only 8% of the 380 developers surveyed by Evans Data Corp. in April are writing applications for Vista, while 49% are still writing applications primarily for the predecessor Windows version, XP. In addition, 11% said applications are mostly for Windows 2003, while 9% are focused on Linux-based apps.

In fact, the CTO for Windows programming tools maker Developer Express was quoted: “None of our customers are saying, ‘We need those WPF controls now!’ (Vista’s new graphical subsystem) We find most are still sticking with ASP.Net and Windows Forms applications.”

Michael Krasowski, vice president of a Microsoft-focused 20-developer firm probably summed it up best: “You can’t write an enterprise app like a demo. It’d be all soft and weak under the hood… We’d never put all that stuff in because it couldn’t support 100 concurrent users.”

To some others, the slow uptake has to do with the relatively slower pace of technological adoption by the enterprise. Yet, with the increasing popularity of Web-based systems, and Microsoft’s own push — by its beefing up IE 8 to be more standards-compliant, the question is whether Vista’s enhanced graphical and UI features will be bypassed completely.

Developing for Vista — are you and your team even doing it yet?