Survey: Developers choose Microsoft's MSDN as top developer program

Computerworld - The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) was selected as the top developer program in a survey of 500 developers conducted last month by Evans Data Corp.
The survey found that more than twice as many developers selected Microsoft Corp.'s program as best overall compared with any other program.
One reason for the success of MSDN is the technical support it provides, according to an Evans statement. More than 40% of developers, the largest plurality, cited MSDN as providing the best technical support, a crucial feature of developer programs. Another reason may be the extent of work that Microsoft has done in promoting online Usenet forums.
Ninety-two percent of developers said an online forum is crucial, and 30% said online forums should be manned by technical personnel from the company, according to the survey. Microsoft has a very extensive Usenet forum presence with more than 1,000 public forums, all well manned by Microsoft for the past 10 years, Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Evans said.
Findings from the 2003 Developer Relations Programs annual report included the following:

• Developers' interest in certification has dropped significantly from the 2002 survey: Forty percent now think certification is important compared with 57% a year ago.


• Usage of development Web sites for software is expected to see a substantial increase from 15% now to a combined 57% of developers extremely likely or somewhat likely to use a Web marketplace for development.


• Development or engineering teams make the choice of which platforms to support in well over half the companies, but only 8% said that decision is market driven.

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