Re: Linux Journal Awards

[Claus Schwarm <c schwarm gmx net>]

On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 17:15:56 -0500
Ian McIntosh <ian_mcintosh linuxadvocate org> wrote:

> So either KDE is simply more popular, KDE folks are better organized,
> or the type of user who chooses KDE is the type who frequents web
> sites like those.
> 

Yes, yes, and yes, IMHO.

The "results" are near the 4:2:1 rule for market shares (see the
OpenOffice.org paper). Assuming the rule of thumb holds at least
partially, KDE was the first-mover so they got the 4/7 or 57%, GNOME is
second-mover so we got 2/7 or 28% and the rest is the 1/7 or 14%.

This is also what the Linux Journal presented: KDE got two votes for
each GNOME vote.

> What we know for certain is that all the government and corporate
> GNOME installations aren't represented in these polls.
> 

You're right, business and government users don't do this sort of polls
but young user do! They are used to forums and polls. This hints to an
interesting hypothesis for a survey:

 "KDE users are - on average - younger than GNOME users."

> Or in other words, "What Luis said."
> 

IMHO, young users also matter for institutional users like cooperations
or government because that's future staff that needs less training.

Additionally, what I keep wondering: Would an institutional user know
what GNOME is? What would they say to somebody 'knocking on their door'?

> Why don't we make an effort to publicize future polls so at least all
> the GNOME guys can vote, if they want to?
> 

IMHO, the Linux Journal polls, as well as the LinuxQuestions.org poll
gets advertised early enought. Given the strong opinions about KDE vs.
GNOME I like to assume the results are rather accurate for the sub-group
of their readers.


Claus