[Cialug] Linux Foundation Desktop Survey

[Todd Walton]

I saw the Linux Foundation's Desktop Survey plugged on Slashdot, and
went and took it.  It's to find out how organizations are using Linux
on the desktop.

https://www.linux-foundation.org/en/2007ClientSurvey

I wanted to point out some interesting points.

1. How many total end user desktops/clients does your organization have?
1-100 69%  The majority of people taking the survey are in small
organizations.  This isn't too surprising.  Most Linux professionals
I've met are.  Smaller organizations are more nimble and able to adapt
to different conditions when it will gain them advantage.  Smaller
organizations also have less money to spend.

11. Which Linux Distributions is your organization running on the
desktop? (Select all that apply)
Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu/Xubuntu 54.8% 4134
Internally Developed Linux Distribution	2.2% 168

Who the heck would roll their own distro these days?  I'm wondering if
those 168 people really meant "I put extra effort into selecting which
applications to install".

12. Which Linux Distributions are you running for personal use?
(Select all that apply)
The results here are a little more concentrated than with question 11
above.  On personal desktops (where everyone makes their own choice,
presumably) people go for a few big names, whereas on business
desktops there's a wider range of distros chosen, including the
business-oriented ("enterprise") distros.  Maybe it's something to do
with available support.

17. How important are the following potential issues to your
organization's decision to migrate to Linux on the Desktop?
The only item that a majority listed as a major obstacle was "Missing
device driver support".  (I totally agree.)  "Intellectual property
and/or licensing concerns", for example, was "not an obstacle".

20. Where should the Linux desktop community focus their efforts in
2008 to speed the adoption Linux on the desktop?
Wireless, open source drivers, cross-distro desktop standards.
Personally, I don't understand why the last is so important,
especially since you're likely to go with one distro and desktop for
everyone, for maintainability's sake.  Fonts and document fidelity was
an important one for me.  My company has a lot of different document
formats floating around (tens of 'em), and there's no monkey wrench in
a person's productivity like breaking the illusion that a document is
a thing unto itself.

-todd