Evans Data Corporation (EDC) just released the results of their yearly survey of software developers. The results are astounding:

The market research firm said that about 65 percent of developers targeted Windows client operating systems in 2006, down from 74 percent the year before, and likely to fall another couple of points this year.

…but it gets better:

“Some of Windows’s marketshare loss appears to be Linux’s gain. Client-side versions of the open source OS were targeted by 11.8 percent of developers in 2006, up from 3.3 percent the year before, the report suggests.”

3.3% to 11.8% in a single year?!? My goodness! If the developers surveyed represent the market accurately (+/- who knows what) then that is about 1.1 million developers jumping on the Linux bandwagon (assuming the current estimate of worldwide developers is correct).

Looks like now is a great time to be an open source geek =)

Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!