Microsoft, Eclipse lead IDE popularity

Source: Computer Business Review

Summary:
In a recent survey of 700 developers, respondents may have rated Microsoft Visual Studio as the most popular, but they ranked other integrated development environments higher when it comes to features.

Admittedly, that's not surprising, as Microsoft dominates the .NET IDE market, whereas numerous vendors carve up the Java segment. In Java, Eclipse was by far the top IDE, according to the Evans Data survey.

Other IDEs with large followings included Macromedia (now Adobe) Studio MX, which is used largely for painting web clients; Oracle 9i Developer Suite (which includes the Java-based JDeveloper); and Borland JBuilder.

But the study revealed a few surprises. Top ranked in features were IBM's Rational Application Developer, followed in order by Borland JBuilder and Sun Java Studio. Conversely, the study claims Oracle has neglected its tools and said BEA, whose WebLogic Studio remains an immature product, was ranked bottom.