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FLOSS Developer Survey Results Published
grex writes "The FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) study from the University of Maastricht has published its final report. One of its five parts is the developer survey based basically on developers from the European Union. Results show that Debian is the preferred distribution, GNOME the desktop the majority choose and vi more popular than Emacs. But this survey also handles economic, law-related and motivation aspects among developers that make it very interesting to read."
The difference between the two is only ~2%, in Gnomes favor. This out of of a group of a little over 2200, I don't know if I would consider that a large enough percentage to consider it to be anything other then a margin of error.
What exactly does Levi Spear Parmly (1790-1859) - the inventor/developer of dental floss - have to do with open source software!
:-)
Or then again, maybe I am just missing something...
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. -- Benjamin Franklin
In one day, we read:
A review of Vim to get people primed for an editor war.
Next, we read about Which is the better browser, to get that war going.
Now, we just put all our eggs in one basket for an all out flamewar that includes distros, editors, Window Managers, and even will bring up the euro vs. american flamewars.
Sweet lord, people! Wonder why Linux is still having trouble competing with MS? Could it possibly be internal conflicts?
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Results show that Debian is the preferred distribution, GNOME the desktop the majority choose and vi more popular than Emacs.
So what you're saying is, these guys spent a ton of money to produce a giant troll ? Did they happen to say to whether Britney Spears is hotter than Shakira, or which Star Trek TV series was best ?
It's true. Look at the study.
Now, if we compare this to /., where approximately six people have a girlfriend, and half of them are girls, we must conclude that nobody on /. actually does anything useful.
<G>
I agree.
Who *doesn't* use Word to code and edit configuration files?
Soma: because a gramme is better than a damn.
As a report discussing the pros and cons as well as the adaptation of OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE, where else would they get their data? You think that they should have gotten their report from Bill Gates?
As for the input being from voluntary users; you think they should have rounded up a few thousand people off the street, at gun point, and asked their opinioin? You're not making sense.
It is an excellent report, regardless of your stand on open source. It would have been better if they could have had a larger sampling but, this is not always possible due to time or budgetary constraints.
q
Q
This survey consisted entirely of self-selected participants. The surveyors actually seemed to boast that they didn't select anyone themselves. This study is bogus and proves nothing.
The staggering support for Debian (48%!) only proves that Debian developers are more successful in recruiting other Debian developers to participate in bogus online survey's. This isn't a dig against Debian, it's a dig against the silly methodology of this study.
This survey, despite its seemingly thoroughness, is no more valid than the weekly Slashdot Poll. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this survey is that Debian, GNOME and vi users are more likely to participate in a self-selected survey than Redhat, SuSE, Mandrake, KDE and emacs users.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
Debian Weekly News comments on this in their latest issue:
62.3% of Linux users have a (warezed) Windows 2000 partition so that they can play Warcraft III
59.3% of Linux users prefer 'slender, young looking' anime babes to 'busty, voluptuous' anime babes.
only 22.3% of Linux users really think Natalie Portman is all the good looking, even in tight white spandex. Most were just thankful that JarJar only got 2 scenes.
93.2% of Linux users who read Slashdot have JonKatz permanently filtered.
32.3% - Boxers
44.1% - Tighty Whiteys
22.3% - Flappin' in the wind, baby!
62% of Linux users think that 'man' is a threatening name for a documentation application since it's vaguely homoerotic.
58.3% of Linux users think that all polls about free software are orchestrated by Microsoft and are unwilling to trust the results, even if they are positive.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Gnome 32.52%
KDE 30.05%
Mac 2.3%
Pure Text 8.37%
Windows 3.56%
Other 23.19%
Since when is 32.52% a majority? This is less than one third, and certainly not more than half, which is waht was indicated by the summary. Of course, I am an idiot for expecting accuracy on /., right?
Lasers Controlled Games!