We have recently completed the second annual survey of the Eclipse user community. This is a study conducted by Evans Data and is sponsored by the Eclipse Foundation and some member companies. Although most of the study is only available to the sponsored companies, I have posted a small subset on the wiki.
Some of the highlights from the survey include:
1. A confirmation that RCP is really gaining adoption and awareness. 22.7% of the respondents are using RCP; more impressive is that 68% intend to use RCP in the next six months. To me this is great news! We are issuing a press release on Tuesday to announce the fact.
2. We also asked a question to determine which Eclipse projects were being used or planned to be use. No surprise that JDT came out on top with 57.5% but CDT came in second with 47.3%. I think this is amazing and a big congratulations to Doug and the CDT team. Could there be a day when more people are actually using CDT than JDT? It is also great to see EMF being used by 36.5% of respondents. I still believe EMF is one of the hidden success stories in the Eclipse community.
One stat that did surprised me was that only 29% were using WTP. I know the team is executing really well and I would expect they will see a big improvement next year. It could also be a fact that a lot of developers are using the commercial equivalent of WTP?
3. We also asked what are the barriers to adopting Eclipse. The number one barrier was ‘Lack of Training for Eclipse’. This was also a key issue last year. Indeed, when I am talking to people about RCP, ‘where can I get Eclipse training?’ is often one of the first questions. I think Eclipse training and services represent a great opportunity for organizations. Organizations like AvantSoft and RCP Training Alliance are leading the charge but I am hopeful that we will see more companies offering Eclipse and RCP training.
4. I must say it surprised me that over 80% of the respondents use Windows as their development platform and Linux accounted for less than 10%. However, when we look at our download numbers this is pretty consistent. Eclipse users are using Windows for their development platform. Deployment is slightly different, with Windows just under 60% and Linux around 20%.
In general I was very pleased with the results. These types of surveys are one measure of how well the community is doing and by this measure things seem to be pretty darn good. 
