openSUSE survey reveals some interesting facts

[eddie]

An online survey was conducted by openSUSE after their 10.2 release in which more than 27,000 users participated. It reveals some interesting facts. Here are a few for you people to ponder about

• More than one third of openSUSE users are in 20-29 Years range
• 98% of users are Male
• More than one third users regard themselves as "Experienced users with no technical skills"
• Most important features people want from their software are stability, followed by security while usability & hardware support tie at third position
• Almost 70% users dual boot with Windows while 30% have completely left the operating system
• Almost 72% users prefer KDE over any other user interface (including console)
• Almost 70% users want openSUSE to improve hardware support

What I find interesting is that Linux users are young and they have the energy to carry Linux movement ahead. I am sure they will make more and more people to see the improvement in Linux environment and help new users in over coming any teething problems. The fact that people give more importance to stability and security then anything else also reaffirms the fact that mass Linux acceptance lies in these two major points. The figure of 30% users with no Windows installation is also heartening to see. The major disappointment is that Women users in Linux are still an endangered species. I personally feel that as and when we get more Video and Voice programs working...we will see more users from the fairer sex.

Full results of survey in PDF

[praka123]

Some results are very nice esp the age group factor.the most disappointed result was women skipping Linux!WHy?I personally tried with girls to try Linux-but reaction is not positive
regarding DE,SUSE prefers (earlier) Kde and ofcourse it is better eyecandy too.
I'd Like to see Debian,Ubuntu and most major distros carrying out such polls!!even in Debian/Ubuntu already a pkg called popularity-contest is there.but that is for reg pkgs popularity.

[mediator]

What I observe is that the fairer sex uses computer mostly for chatting (all the gals......techies+nontechies), doing web designing and architecture (most of the techy gals) and programming (very few techy gals). They r ignorant about the latest updates in technology and dont know beyond what they were taught in skools, colleges and training in companies. So its really not surprising to know about the statistics of the survey!

I think opensource developers shud create some softwares on beauty, facials, hairstyles, cooking, dress sense etc. I bet it will recieve a boost then.

[aditya.shevade]

^^ LOL ... By the way, the results seem to be interesting. And I am actually surprised that Hardware support is in 3rd pos. It should be first. My friend loved SuSE, but it just did not recognize his hardware. (The hardware of his laptop I mean not his ).

Aditya

[eddie]

Originally Posted by mediator

So its really not surprising to know about the statistics of the survey!

...but just TWO percent? I mean we have more users with age >60 years then that. There are 3.3% users in that category...if we can attract absolutely n00b grandpas and grandmoms then why not more techie girls? This is a weird situation for OSS.

Originally Posted by aditya.shevade

^^ LOL ... By the way, the results seem to be interesting. And I am actually surprised that Hardware support is in 3rd pos.

Yes I was surprised as well. It just shows that security is becoming a major concern for users while they compromise with other features and it can really become a selling point for Linux.

[mediator]

Yea stability comes first. How can any one use an OS that crashes randomly and haunted by other miseries? For a flawless and smooth computing the base has to be stable!

Neways, most of those techy gals don't even know how to tweak their system. Unwanted services r left open on their systems. They surf the net without "common sense" as u might be knowing .

Just ask ur gals about it. U won't be surprised by the results! I doubt even if one out of 10 wud be knowing about how to install the most famous OS.

[eddie]

I can't say like that about girls man . Actually I was introduced to Linux by my ex-gf who herself was a real power user in Linux environ and still is. Also, most of the girls I know work without any issues on user centric Linux distros...so it becomes really difficult for me to understand this 2% equation. Just comparing the technical knowhow of my grandma and girls around me is kind of weird

[mediator]

Mahn...thats news for me!
Neways yea exceptions r there. I guess that 2% is also an exception.

[aditya.shevade]

Originally Posted by mediator

Just ask ur gals about it. U won't be surprised by the results! I doubt even if one out of 10 wud be knowing about how to install the most famous OS.

^^ That is true..... From what I know, most don't even know how to install S/W with a little complicated procedure..... But that does not mean that every girl is like that.