Re: GNOME Years

[Telsa Gwynne <hobbit aloss ukuu org uk>]

On Wed, Oct 31, 2001 at 09:58:02AM -0600 or thereabouts, Linas Vepstas wrote:
> The result is somewhat biased, since these are people curious enough to 
> find and visit the gnucash web site.  Still, in some way, they can be
> argued to be 'average gnome desktop users':

This is a brilliant survey. 
 
> 95% male
> almost 50% ar 26-36 years old
> over 25% are 25 or under
> 90% have college (university) degree
> 70% are highly technical (50% are programmers, 20% are scientists/engineers)

Interesting. This seems pretty like the education figures someone 
got for the Linux kernel contributors. (Printed in Linux Journal:
http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue57/2931.html is the 
URL.) That didn't include age though, although you could take some
guesses by looking at the 'work experience' bit and presuming that
people with five years of experience were likely to be 21+.

> More than anything else, the 70% figure disturbed me.  Only 1.3%
> classified themselves as "ordinary computer users".  This is way, way
> off the norm, and bodes poorly for the Linux desktop if its
> representative of the 'average user'.  I'd like to see the same stats
> for a 'typical purchaser of a redhat shrink-wrap box'.

I wonder whether it's something as small as people not wanting to
say "ordinary" about themselves? :) If the next category up had 
not been there (knowledgeable, power-user"), I wonder whether that
10% would have gone for beginner or for the computer hobbyist/
enthusiast group? 

I too would be interested to know how far this mirrors or diverges
from a "bought the CD, installed it" Linux user. I suspect it's 
different, because people who did that often don't go out and
download new software: they wait for the next CD. (This is pretty
clear from the number of bug reports for Gnome 1.2 -- and even 
Gnome 1.0 -- we get in bugzilla.) 

> > Often I find out that someone is far, far younger or older than I had
> > imagined - always surprising.
> 
> I just turned 42.
> --linas

Since hobbits come of age at 33, I still have just over a year of
silliness I am allowed :)

Thanks for the link to the survey. Interesting stuff.

Telsa (31)