Attention desktop Linux users - Are you a typical user?
OpenSUSE.org has published the results of a three-month survey of over 27,000 participants. The results are interesting:
A typical Linux desktop user is a guy in his twenties who's computer savvy but may very well not be an IT professional.
Professionally speaking, an openSUSE Linux desktop user tends to be a student. Since a plurality of users are in their twenties, it seems safe to assume that most of them are undergraduate or graduate students. For those who are working full time, the greatest number, 21.4 percent, work as system administrators.
However, while 32.9 percent of openSUSE users said they make a living by working on computer-related jobs, the single largest group of openSUSE users, 35.7 percent, describe themselves as experienced users but without any great technical skills. These users can set up openSUSE the way they like and keep it updated, but they don't consider themselves Linux experts. Perhaps the term "power user" could best describe them.
The results certainly are interesting. Here are some highlights from the survey:
- 27.2% of Linux users are 24 years old or younger while 11.4% are 50 years old or over.
- 98% or Linux users are male.
- 4.2% of users only have a basic level of knowledge.
- 89.1% of users use a broadband/DSL connection, but 0.7% has no internet connection.
- 25% said that price was the most important software criteria but hardware support was up at 58% while security was at 63%.
- 31.6% mainly use Windows, while 50.9% mainly use OpenSUSE/SUSE LINUX while 5% of those surveyed used Ubuntu (hmmm ... ).
- 69.5% dual boot with Windows.
- 84.7% of those surveyed aren't involved with the OpenSUSE project.
So, if you are a desktop Linux user, are you a typical desktop Linux user?
You can find the results of the survey here (PDF).