End-of-year-surveys/2020/Data
openSUSE End of the Year 2020 Community Survey
If you find typos please get in touch instead of editing the wiki yourself, as it might impact our graphs.
Data tabulated by nycticorax@opensuse.org.
Community discussion of the results
Available here.
The story in a nutshell
Our userbase is quite contrasted: on the one hand, more than 50% of users are either seasoned users or working in IT with more than 5 years of experience using an openSUSE distribution (twice as many years for other *NIX operating systems), while on the other hand 50% of respondents don't have a university degree or have been using an openSUSE desktop for at most 3 years. This contrast, in view of the fact that the two most signifiant pain centers are "finding / exploring documentation and software", hints at an interesting divide between very proficient users and less experienced users, especially regarding the desktop.
In terms of overall use cases, it appears that openSUSE distributions are mostly made of "switchers", with only 5% of users (averaging server and desktop users) for whom an openSUSE distrubution is their first operating system (mostly other Linux distributions and Windows). Noteworthy also is the fact that Tumbleweed edges Leap by around 5% on the desktop.
Regarding satisfaction, in addition to difficulties with finding or exploring documentation and packages / software, we see that a majority of people feel that openSUSE does not make it sufficiently easy for people to participate to the community life, to get into contributing, or to acquire more responsibilities within the community.
A majority of respondents also suspect that openSUSE is not perceived sufficently well by outsiders to the community, influencers in particular. Finally, regarding communication channels, the forums and mailing lists stay strong with more than a majority of respondents using them on a regular basis at least.
Graphs
Graphs are available here.
Demographics
Gender
Complete: 1086 Missing: 107
- female: 20
- male: 999
- non-binary: 13
- prefer not to say: 54
Age range
Complete: 1085 Missing: 108
- < 25: 194
- 25-34: 261
- 35-49: 386
- 50+: 244
Regions
Complete: 1086 Missing: 107
- Americas: 253
- Asia: 93
- Europe: 706
- Oceania: 18
- Africa: 16
Education, work, occupation
Holds university degree
Complete: 1085 Missing: 108
- No: 590
- Yes: 518
Is working in IT
Complete: 1108 Missing: 85
- No: 497
- Yes: 611
Has a job in...
Complete: 856 Missing: 337
- Business, Office: 66
- Tech, Content Producer, non-IT Professional: 51
- IT Professional, Administrator, Software developer, DevOps: 322
- openSUSE Developer, Contributor: 26
- Private, Home User: 391
Is currently studying
Complete: 1108 Missing: 85
- No: 897
- Yes: 211
Is a tech hobbyist
Complete: 1085 Missing: 108
- No: 384
- Yes: 724
Use cases
Uses Leap as Desktop on a regular basis
Complete: 879 Missing: 314
- No: 412
- Yes: 467
Uses Leap as Server on a regular basis
Complete: 879 Missing: 314
- No: 708
- Yes: 171
Uses Tumbleweed as Desktop on a regular basis
Complete: 879 Missing: 314
- No: 368
- Yes: 511
Uses Tumbleweed as Server on a regular basis
Complete: 879 Missing: 314
- No: 829
- Yes: 50
Uses microOS as Desktop on a regular basis
Complete: 879 Missing: 314
- No: 867
- Yes: 12
Uses microOS as Server on a regular basis
Complete: 879 Missing: 314
- No: 856
- Yes: 23
Uses Kubic (as Server) on a regular basis
Complete: 879 Missing: 314
- No: 875
- Yes: 4
Use cases: Pain points
Complete: 879 Missing: 314
- docs: 181
- installation: 110
- hardware badly / not supported: 133
- DE settings: 86
- openSUSE settings: 58
- unable to find software or packages: 151
- installing software or packages: 125
- configuring packages: 72
- unable to have desired workflow: 20
- lack of clear best*practice: 69
- something else? 101
Desktop environment
DE on the Desktop
Complete: 856 Missing: 337
- MATE: 8
- LxQt: 6
- LXDE: 4
- Cinammmon: 9
- Pantheon: 1
- sway: 7
- Enlightment: 3
- Other: 47
- KDE Plasma: 553
- GNOME: 135
- XFCE: 83
DE satisfaction
Complete: 879 Missing: 314
- Very satisfied: 442
- Satisfied: 370
- Neutral: 54
- Unsatisfied: 5
- Disappointed: 3
Derivative distributions
Complete: 855 Missing: 338
- Gecko: 28
- Next: 2
- Argon: 8
- Krypton: 3
- Other: 20
- None: 560
openSUSE on the mobile
Complete: 853 Missing: 340
- No: 814
- Yes: 39
Desktop
*NIX: How long been using as main desktop?
Complete: 800 Missing: 393
- Less than a 1 year: 38
- 1-3 years: 79
- +3 years: 62
- +5 years: 118
- + 10 years: 503
openSUSE distributions: How long been using one as main desktop?
Complete: 807 Missing: 386
- Less than a 1 year: 206
- 1-3 years: 150
- +3 years: 64
- +5 years: 105
- + 10 years: 282
openSUSE distributions: Source of motivation
Complete: 803 Missing: 390
- youtube, other video platforms: 68
- blogs: 117
- magazines (print or digital): 74
- Other: 317
- family, friends: 83
- school, university: 52
- at work: 80
- conference, public events: 12
Previous operating system
Complete: 803 Missing: 390
- always used an openSUSE distribution: 30
- another Linux distribution, please specify in the text field: 467
- Windows: 223
- macOS: 33
- chromeOS: 60
Replacement with openSUSE distributions
Complete: 798 Missing: 395
- Yes, for the most part: 580
- Yes, partially: 99
- No, I still need the other system: 119
CPU architecture
Complete: 822 Missing: 371
- Intel 64: 632
- Intel 32: 33
- AMD 64: 366
- AMD 86: 8
- ARM (32, 64): 96
- PowerPC 64: 7
GPU architecture
Complete: 822 Missing: 371
- AMD: 324
- Intel: 456
- Nvidia: 339
- Other: 12
Desktop machine(s): How old?
Complete: 814 Missing: 380
- Less than a 1 year: 91
- 1-3 years: 270
- +3 years: 184
- +5 years: 231
- + 10 years: 37
Server
*NIX on the server: How long
Complete: 813 Missing: 641
- Less than a 1 year: 76
- 1-3 years: 56
- +3 years: 46
- +5 years: 85
- + 10 years: 289
openSUSE distributions on the server: How long
Complete: 488 Missing: 705
- Less than a 1 year: 203
- 1-3 years: 66
- +3 years: 35
- +5 years: 471
- + 10 years: 137
openSUSE distributions on the server: Source of motivation
Complete: 805 Missing: 388
- youtube, other video platforms: 36
- blogs: 55
- magazines (print or digital): 48
- Other: 186
- family, friends: 44
- school, university: 40
- at work: 115
- conference, public events: 22
previously run on the server
Complete: 561 Missing: 632
- another Linux distribution, please specify: 315
- Never used another OS before using openSUSE: 44
- Windows: 120
- some BSD flavour: 15
- macOS: 7
- Other: 60
server replacement
Complete: 540 Missing: 653
- Yes, for the most part: 325
- Yes, partially: 74
- No, I still need the other system: 141
CPU architecture
Complete: 796 Missing: 397
- Intel 64: 401
- Intel 32: 13
- AMD 64: 183
- AMD 86: 4
- ARM (32, 64): 69
- s390: 3
GPU architecture
Complete: 796 Missing: 397
- AMD: 114
- Intel: 239
- Nvidia: 125
- Other: 54
Machine(s) used as server: How old?
Complete: 486 Missing: 707
- Less than a 1 year: 50
- 1-3 years: 148
- +3 years: 127
- +5 years: 129
- + 10 years: 32
Community
Is contributing
Complete: 751 Missing: 442
- release engineer: 12
- infrastructure: 22
- packaging & maintenance: 91
- docs: 49
- edition, web contents: 23
- design, web design: 12
- translation: 47
- user support: 173
- digital communication, promotion, marketing: 57
Has been contributing for
Complete: 274 Missing: 919
- Less than 1 year: 73
- 1-3 years: 55
- +3 years: 20
- +5 years: 50
- + 10 years: 76
How satisfied with and aware of ..?
OBS
Complete: 410 Missing: 784
- very: 152
- satisfied: 159
- neutral: 81
- unsatisfied: 13
- disappointed: 4
OBS awareness
Complete: 222 Missing: 971
- unaware of: 222
Open QA
Complete: 251 Missing: 942
- very: 76
- satisfied: 90
- neutral: 78
- unsatisfied: 3
- disappointed: 4
- unaware of: 353
Open QA awareness
Complete: 353 Missing: 840
- unaware of: 353
KIWI
Complete: 173 Missing: 1020
- very: 47
- satisfied: 96
- neutral: 6
- unsatisfied: 2
- disappointed: 22
KIWI awareness
Complete: 433 Missing: 760
- unaware of: 433
Uyuni
Complete: 100 Missing: 1093
- very: 22
- satisfied: 64
- neutral: 2
- unsatisfied: 2
- disappointed: 10
Uyuni awareness
Complete: 485 Missing: 708
- unaware of: 485
openSUSE docs
Complete: 448 Missing: 745
- very: 203
- satisfied: 119
- neutral: 50
- unsatisfied: 11
- disappointed: 65
openSUSE docs awareness
Complete: 161 Missing: 1032
- unaware of: 161
project
Complete: 751 Missing: 442
- web platforms difficult to discover: 48
- web platforms difficult to navigate: 48
- difficult to find docs: 143
- difficult to navigate docs: 89
- too complicated infrastructure: 37
- insufficient best-practice for infrastructure: 50
- finding people interested in helping me is difficult: 41
- communication & coordination is difficult: 30
- other: 33
Getting more familiar with ?..
Scale from 1 to 5, 1 expresses the highest degree of interest.
OBS
Complete: 437 Missing: 756
- 1: 207
- 2: 84
- 3: 48
- 4: 31
- 5: 67
Open QA
Complete: 400 Missing: 793
- 1: 54
- 2: 96
- 3: 120
- 4: 56
- 5: 74
KIWI
Complete: 386 Missing: 807
- 1: 49
- 2: 52
- 3: 82
- 4: 81
- 5: 122
Uyuni
Complete: 373 Missing: 820
- 1: 55
- 2: 29
- 3: 58
- 4: 51
- 5: 180
openSUSE docs ?
Complete: 424 Missing: 769
- 1: 100
- 2: 91
- 3: 99
- 4: 56
- 5: 78
Would consider contributing to ...
Scale from 1 to 5, 1 expresses the highest degree of interest.
OBS
Complete: 369 Missing: 824
- 1: 133
- 2: 81
- 3: 58
- 4: 32
- 5: 65
Open QA
Complete: 424 Missing: 769
- 1: 61
- 2: 72
- 3: 96
- 4: 39
- 5: 68
KIWI
Complete: 326 Missing: 867
- 1: 46
- 2: 36
- 3: 67
- 4: 65
- 5: 112
Uyuni
Complete: 315 Missing: 878
- 1: 48
- 2: 28
- 3: 43
- 4: 37
- 5: 159
openSUSE docs
Complete: 377 Missing: 816
- 1: 130
- 2: 77
- 3: 76
- 4: 33
- 5: 61
How strong do you agree to ....
Scale from 1 to 5, 1 expresses the highest degree of assent.
openSUSE welcoming to new users
Complete: 650 Missing: 543
- 1: 212
- 2: 306
- 3: 106
- 4: 19
- 5: 7
openSUSE welcoming to minorities
Complete: 627 Missing: 570
- 1: 152
- 2: 196
- 3: 269
- 4: 4
- 5: 2
openSUSE welcoming to all languages and nationalities
Complete: 634 Missing: 559
- 1: 189
- 2: 261
- 3: 169
- 4: 11
- 5: 4
openSUSE helps users participate to the community life
Complete: 629 Missing: 564
- 1: 114
- 2: 256
- 3: 235
- 4: 21
- 5: 3
openSUSE helps users participate to the distributions, infrastructure and contents
Complete: 621 Missing: 572
- 1: 93
- 2: 220
- 3: 263
- 4: 40
- 5: 5
openSUSE makes it easy to get more responsibilities
Complete: 650 Missing: 543
- 1: 66
- 2: 124
- 3: 374
- 4: 39
- 5: 8
openSUSE makes it easy for people to participate to project governance
Complete: 607 Missing: 586
- 1: 60
- 2: 117
- 3: 367
- 4: 48
- 5: 15
openSUSE is positively perceived outside of the community
Complete: 615 Missing: 578
- 1: 98
- 2: 241
- 3: 211
- 4: 53
- 5: 12
openSUSE is positively perceived by influencers
Complete: 614 Missing: 579
- 1: 100
- 2: 257
- 3: 46
- 4: 8
- 5: 203
openSUSE is sufficiently communicated about by openSUSE members
Complete: 608 Missing: 585
- 1: 58
- 2: 163
- 3: 252
- 4: 111
- 5: 24
How often to you visit the platforms for interacting with the community ?
1: Frequently, 2: Sometimes, 3: Never
ML
Complete: 630 Missing: 563
- 1: 138
- 2: 221
- 3: 271
forums
Complete: 643 Missing: 550
- 1: 129
- 2: 375
- 3: 139
IRC
Complete: 611 Missing: 582
- 1: 229
- 2: 109
- 3: 473
Discord
Complete: 611 Missing: 582
- 1: 42
- 2: 77
- 3: 492
telegram
Complete: 613 Missing: 580
- 1: 71
- 2: 62
- 3: 480
How often to you visit the platforms for news ?
1: Frequently, 2: Sometimes, 3: Never
websites
Complete: 653 Missing: 540
- 1: 342
- 2: 269
- 3: 42
ML
Complete: 618 Missing: 575
- 1: 155
- 2: 205
- 3: 258
forums
Complete: 637 Missing: 556
- 1: 132
- 2: 334
- 3: 171
IRC
Complete: 605 Missing: 588
- 1: 22
- 2: 90
- 3: 493
Discord
Complete: 608 Missing: 585
- 1: 38
- 2: 64
- 3: 506
telegram
Complete: 608 Missing: 585
- 1: 76
- 2: 51
- 3: 481