Novell survey: Suse users are young, technical males

Users of the Linux distribution OpenSuse are overwhelmingly technical, young males and they prefer working in a character-based environment rather than with a GUI, or graphical user interface, according to a survey conducted by Novell, the creator of Suse.

These users mainly choose Suse Linux and OpenSuse as their distribution — 51 percent — but when they turn to other distributions, it's usually Windows (31 percent of respondents). Novell's research, which surveyed 27,000 users and which closed on Thursday, found that the most popular competing Linux version is Ubuntu, with five percent of Suse users.

Separated by age, the largest group of users (17.9 percent) is in the 25 to 29 age bracket. The second largest group (17.5 percent) is aged between 20 and 24. Ninety-eight percent are male.

The Suse user base is technically very strong, the survey found. The largest percentage of users, 35 percent, claims to be an experienced user to the extent that they have sufficient technical skills to update and configure their own computer. The next largest group, 32.9 percent, claims to have a professional knowledge of computers to the extent that they earn money working in an IT environment. Just 4.5 percent claim to have only a basic knowledge of computers.

Better hardware support is the most requested feature for Suse, demanded by 68.9 percent of users.