End-of-year-surveys/2021

All text comments: File:Comments.pdf

Demographics

DemQ1

• Gender

DemQ2

• Age range

DemQ3

• Hemisphere

DemQ4

• Timezone (UTC)

Education

EduQ1

• Do you have a university degree or are you pursuing a university degree? NB: You can skip this question.

EduQ2

• What university / higher-education degree do you have? NB: You can skip this question.

EduQ3

• Do you or did you have a job in IT for 5 years or more? NB: You can skip this question.

EduQ4

• Would you be interested in a job in IT in the future? NB: You can skip this question.

Linux, openSUSE, DESKTOP usage

LODQ1

• How many years have you been using a *NIX operating system on a regular basis (several times a week) as a desktop machine? NB: You can skip this question.

LODQ2

• Have you been using an openSUSE distribution on a regular basis (say for 6 months) at any point in the past? NB: You can skip this question.

LODQ3

• Which openSUSE distribution(s) are you using as your daily desktop driver(s) at the moment? NB: You can skip this question.

LODQ4

• Are you using another operating system besides openSUSE as desktop at the moment? NB: You can skip this question.

LODQ5

• If you could fit your workflow / tools into one single distribution, which one would that be? NB: You can skip this question.

LODQ6

• What activities do you do the most on your mainly desktop driver(s)? PS: This question is optional. "No answer" means that you don't do the activity.

=> see "takeaways" below

LODQ7

• Please skip if this question does not apply. For each activity picked in the previous question: How well is the activity supported on openSUSE?

=> see "takeaways" below

Takeaways for LODQ6-Q7

• unsurprinsingly, the traditional devops/sysadmin use case of openSUSE comes out strong, with 761 and 720 people who reported "coding, programming, software dev, devops" and "software configuration, management, deployment, sysadmin" activities respectively, of whom 78% reported their activities to be "well supported";
• on the other hand movie editing/design, and music, sound editing/design were rated as "not supported" or "still has room for improvement" for 301 users, almost half of the 622 users who reported performing these activities on openSUSE.

Details coding, programming, software dev, devops:

   hobby: 354
   volunteer: 38
   pro: 369

support:

   not supported: 12
   some support but room for improvement: 92
   well supported: 608

software configuration, management, deployment, sysadmin activities:

   hobby: 351
   volunteer: 46
   pro: 323

support:

   not supported: 9
   some support but room for improvement: 93
   well supported: 552

movie editing/design for production:

   hobby: 274
   volunteer: 15
   pro: 35

support:

   not supported: 21
   some support but room for improvement: 133
   well supported: 137

music, sound editing/design for production

   hobby: 268
   volunteer: 15
   pro: 15

support:

   not supported: 17
   some support but room for improvement: 130
   well supported: 128

text editing/formatting/publishing

   hobby: 308
   volunteer: 41
   pro: 272

support:

   not supported: 7
   some support but room for improvement: 89
   well supported: 435

drawing, digital painting, visual arts

   hobby: 301
   volunteer: 19
   pro: 67

support:

   not supported: 7
   some support but room for improvement: 122
   well supported: 221

architecture, engineering and design

   hobby: 112
   volunteer: 11
   pro: 90

support:

   not supported: 22
   some support but room for improvement: 85
   well supported: 88

medical/scientific computing/visualization

   hobby: 7
   volunteer: 86
   pro: 102

support:

   not supported: 7
   some support but room for improvement: 86
   well supported: 811

LODQ8

• You can comment on the less than well supported activities: What are the biggest obstacles in your view? NB: You can skip this question.

see File:Comments.pdf

LODQ9

• What best describes your situation with regard to gaming? NB: You can skip this question.

LODQ10

• Among these sources of software, which do you use the most on your openSUSE main desktop driver ? NB: You can skip this question.

LODQ11

• Based on the previous question, is one of these sources significantly more important than the others for your personal usage? NB: You can skip this question.

Takeaways for LODQ11

• the overall ranking from most to least important software procurement solution to the 1320 respondents to this question is as follows;
• somewhat surprisingly, the second favorite solution (flatpaks) is quite far behind the first (native packages), the latter seen as the most important by only 17% of the respondents

official rpms:

   more important: 727
   equally important: 170

flatpaks:

   more important: 125
   equally important: 213

.rpm downloaded or installed from websites or scripts:

   more important 97
   equally important: 236
       

packaged from source:

   more important: 78
   equally important: 127

appimages:

   more important: 54
   equally important: 143

snaps:

   more important: 19
   equally important: 80

LODQ12

• To what extent do you agree with the following statements? (5 best - 1 worst) NB: This question is optional.

Takeways for LODQ12

• unsurprisingly the openSUSE distributions are still perceived as "power users" distributions, with "I feel like recommending an openSUSE distribution in a desktop capacity to new users" coming out as the answer with the smallest score, lying out quite far from the median score (3714)
• above the median (3714) were found close from one one another "easy to update or patch", "easy to install" and "I feel like recommending to avanced users", which suggests that the ease to update, patch and install is strongly correlated with the skill level of respondents.

Answers in descending order of mean scores (average of means: 4.458)

• "I feel like recommending (some openSUSE OS) in a desktop capacity to advanced users": 4.63
• "I feel like recommending (some openSUSE OS) in a desktop capacity to developers, programmers and other IT professionals": 3652, 4.62
• "my openSUSE daily driver is versatile, can host a number of different applications": 4.57
• "my openSUSE daily driver can be adapted to different workflows": 4.56
• "my openSUSE daily driver is are easy to update/patch": 4.53
• "my openSUSE daily driver is performant": 4.52
• "my openSUSE daily driver was easy to install": 4.49
• "my openSUSE daily driver is reliable (few crashes or disrupting incidents": 4.48
• "my openSUSE daily driver is easy to configure": 4.3
• "I feel like recommending (some openSUSE OS) in a desktop capacity to new users": 3.88

Linux, openSUSE, SERVER usage

LOSQ1

• How many years have you been using a *NIX operating system on a regular basis (several times a week) in a server capacity? NB: This question is optional.

LOSQ2

• Which openSUSE distribution(s) do you install the most in a server capacity at the moment? NB: This question is optional.

LOSQ3

• Regardless of the above, what kind of solutions and services are you hosting on your server(s)? NB: This question is optional.

=> see takeaways below

LOSQ4

• Please skip if this question does not apply. For each category of services picked in the previous question: How well are the services supported in openSUSE, in your view?

=> see takeaways below

Takeaways for LOSQ3-Q4

• leading the pack in terms of number of users are "web hosting", "databases", "web API", "containers" and "virtualization"
• "well supported" averages at 0.54 for these five categories, with "virtualization" (0.6) and "web hosting (0.56) and "containers & microservices" (0.47) being the upper and lower bound respectively

All activities in descending order (all types of commitment -- as a hobby, as a volunteer, etc. -- taken together):

• web hosting/static contents: 371

well supported: 207 some support: 30 not supported: 5

• databases, datastores: 360

well supported: 195 some support: 30 not supported: 4

• web API/services: 307

well supported: 160 some support: 37 not supported: 7

• containers + microservices: 278

well supported: 131 some support: 43 not supported: 6

• virtualization: 245

well supported: 146 some support: 32 not supported: 5

• devops infrastructure, load balancing, orchestration: 187

well supported: 93 some support: 28 not supported: 5

• security, identity, authentication: 170

well supported: 81 some support: 31 not supported: 2

• software building, tools/toolchain: 167

well supported: 111 some support: 13 not supported: 2

• communication mobile: 165

well supported: 63 some support: 33 not supported: 5

• entreprise productivity: 127

well supported: 76 some support: 27 not supported: 5

• IoT: 118

well supported: 35 some support: 28 not supported: 7

• analysis, simulation, modelling: 114

       well supported: 44
       some supported: 34
       not supported: 5

• saas: 83

well supported: 31 some support: 13 not supported: 1

• machine learning, AI: 65

well supported: 21 some support: 25 not supported: 3

• performance computing: 62

well supported: 41 some support: 21 not supported: 3

• data lakes: 58

well supported: 32 some support: 15 not supported: 4

• blockchain: 47

well supported: 16 some support: 19 not supported: 4

• paas: 42

well supported: 16 some support: 11 not supported: 1

• faas: 19

well supported: 1 some support: 9 not supported: 0

LOSQ5

• You can comment on the less than well supported categories. NB: This question is optional.

see File:Comments.pdf

LOSQ6

• To what extent do you agree with the following statements? (5 maximal agreement - 1 minimal) NB: This question is optional.

Results in descending order of score, split across the mean:

• "openSUSE makes my servers reliable": 1312
• "I feel safe recommending (openSUSE OS) in a server capacity to hobbyist and home users": 1307
• "openSUSE makes my servers easy to update/patch": 1304

Mean: 1259.75

• "openSUSE makes my servers easy to configure": 1249
• "openSUSE makes my servers versaile, can host a number of different applications and services": 1234
• "openSUSE makes my servers easy to deploy": 1234
• "I feel safe recommending (openSUSE OS) in a server capacity for industry-grade production": 1230
• "openSUSE makes my servers performant": 1208

The openSUSE ecoystem and community

EcoQ1

• What attracted you the most when starting to use an openSUSE distribution? NB: This question is optional.

EcoQ1a

• What was it? (this other thing that attracted you the most)

see File:Comments.pdf

EcoQ2

• What have been the main motivations for continuing to use an openSUSE distribution? NB: This question is optional.

EcoQ2a

• What was it?

see File:Comments.pdf

EcoQ3

• As far as onboarding is concerned, how much do you agree with the following statements? (5 is strongly agree and 1 is strongly disagree) NB: This question is optional.

All results in decending order of average score, split across the mean:

• "it’s easy to get openSUSE distributions installed": 4.45
• "it’s easy to get openSUSE distributions configured and tweaked to my use case and liking": 4.22
• "it’s easy to socialize and/or make friends in the openSUSE community": 3.79
• "it’s easy to get support": 3.76

mean at 3.66

• "it’s easy to find reliable and clear documentation on openSUSE distributions": 3.59
• "it’s easy to find guidelines or help on how to contribute to the openSUSE project in general?": 3.43
• "it’s easy to get into packaging": 3.38
• "it’s easy to get into developing / maintaining the infrastructure?": 3.28
• "it’s easy to get into developing the distributions?": 3.11

EcoQ4

• Regarding governing, how much do you agree with the following statements? openSUSE would benefit more if

Mean: 4

• "... more was done to mentor/teach potentially interested contributors: 4.06
• "... more was done to help newcomers": 4.04
• "... more was done to develop a vision, roadmap, priorities": 3.9

EcoQ5

• How much do you agree with the following outcome statements?

Mean: 4.18

• "openSUSE helps me improve my Linux knowledge and skills": 4.25
• "openSUSE helps me flourish as person committed to open-source": 4.23
• "openSUSE helps me achieve professionally": 4.17
• "openSUSE helps me build transferable knowledge and skills as far as software development / devops / sysadmin tasks are concerned": 4.1

EcoQ6

• Overall satisfaction, how much do you agree with the following statements?

Mean: 4.07

• "I would recommend an openSUSE distribution tech savvy users, Linux veterans and IT professionals": 4.41
• "committing my time and efforts to openSUSE as a user is a rewarding experience": 4.35
• "committing my time and efforts to openSUSE as a contributor is a rewarding experience": 4.04
• "I would recommend an openSUSE distribution to non-tech savvy friends or relatives": 3.51

Communication

ComQ1

What are these social platforms good for, in your experience? NB: This question is optional.

In descending order of votes, broken down into expected value:

learning news about the distributions

• twitter: 192
• reddit: 87
• telegram: 35

learning news about the community

• twitter: 83
• reddit: 95
• telegram: 35

solving / troubleshooting my issues

• forums: 493
• reddit: 251
• libera + matrix: 129
• libera: 86

deepening my understanding of my machine / configuration

• forums: 52
• reddit: 30

socializing

• libera + matrix: 138
• discord: 134
• telegram: 103
• twitter: 91
• matrix: 80
• libera: 58

ComQ2

• Do you think that openSUSE has too many communication channels? No, there are just enough. NB: This question is optional.

ComQ3

• If yes: Which channels would you keep?

ComQ4

• Is there a replacement for one or several communication channels you could imagine would work for openSUSE?

see File:Comments.pdf as well as: