Survey Asks: Who Are Linux Desktop Users?
By Alexander Grundner |
May 7th, 2007
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This is a question I think most people have been curious about, especially those in the Microsoft camp that don’t know what to make of the unexpected migration from Windows XP to Linux Desktop distributions like Ubuntu/Debian, SUSE/OpenSUSE, Fedora Core, and others. Luckily, however, the OpenSUSE project has taken it upon themselves to survey the public over the past three months to find answers as to why their choice of operating systems is now Linux-based (via DesktopLinux.com). The full survey results (based on 27,000 participants) can be downloaded here [PDF file].
Interesting take-aways from the results:
A typical Linux Desktop user is in their twenties (majority of respondents are in the marketers’ sweet spot of the 18-35 demographic), they consider themselves to be computer savvy (but not experts), are enrolled as undergrad and graduate students, and rank what they look for in an operating system from most important to least: stability, security, hardware support, and usability. This last point being especially interesting. In my opinion, at least from what I’ve seen and experienced, most mainstream operating systems’ (i.e. Mac, Windows) focus is completely the opposite in terms of importance.
For all you “analysts” out there, take note and try and make a case for why this is since all I’ve ever read is that these very attributes are the things that supposedly are inhibiting people from using Linux on the desktop. But then again, maybe these analysts haven’t made the connection that these users are the very same people who prize software freedom over proprietary lock-in and hack devices to function to their will, not the vendors.
Of course, there’s more info to sift over, but so far the findings have shed new light on who Linux Desktop users are. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft and Apple tries to lure them back (if at all) since obviously they’re at odds as to what’s important to them at the moment.
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Image credit: Linux and Open Source Blog
Filed in: Industry Buzz