Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
So, finally, here are the survey results. The survey ran from late April to early December.
All Devices
We had a total of 475 responses, over 1,099 visits (with 874 being unique visits) a completion rate of 54.3% with the average time to complete being almost 25 minutes.
From 475 responses, 419 were desktop/laptop, 32 from smartphones, and 24 from tablets.
From the 1099 visits, 940 were desktop/laptop, 99 from smartphones, and 60 from tablets.
About You
From 475 answers, 458 were male, 17 were female. That’s 96% male.
Also with 475 answers, 153 (32%) were 61+, 134 (28%) were 41-50, 104 (22%) were 51-60, 58 (12%) were 31-40, 23 (5%) were 21-30 and only 3 were 20 or under.
From 475 answers on location, we have 112 (23%) from the U.S., 107 (22.5%) from ‘other’, 51 (10%) from France, 35 (7.5%) from the U.K., 31 (6.5%) from Italy, with Australia, Canada, Asia, Latin America Germany, etc. all having between 10-20 responses.
With 473 answers on using Ubuntu/Linux, 454 (96%) use it at home, 356 on a laptop, 320 on a desktop, 180 at work, 31 on smartphone, 29 on tablet and 18 on a Chromebook.
32-bit
With regards to 32-bit hardware we had 473 answers. 231 (48%) have no 32-bit devices, 122 (25%) have one device, 60 (13%) have 2 devices, and a total of 12% have 3 or more 32-bit devices.
190 (46%) said they did plan on phasing out their 32-bit devices. 219 (53%) said no.
From the 190 who did plan on phasing them out, 137 (37%) said they’d phase them out over 3 years. 115 (31%) said they’d phase them out over one month. 48 (13%) said within two years with the same saying within one year. Only 5% said over six months.
64-bit
Regarding 64-bit, 451 answered and 111 (25%) said they have 3 devices that are 64-bit. 109 (24%) said they have 2 devices. 84 (19%) have 6 or more devices. Only 57 have 1 device, 53 have 4 devices, 32 have 5 devices. Only 5 said they have no 64-bit devices.
Encryption
Out of 473, 344 (72%) have no encryption on their drive(s). 70 (15%) have encrypted their /home partition. 66 (14%) have encrypted one or more folders, and 50 (11%) encrypt the full drive.
Cloud Storage
With 369 answers, 205 (56%) use Google Drive/Docs. 157 (42%) Dropbox, 62 (17%) OneDrive, 53 (14%) OwnCloud, 25 (7%) Box, with 98 (27%) using ‘other’ cloud storage.
Out of 443, 330 (75%) said the cloud storage was not their backup. 113 said it was their backup.
Ubuntu/Linux
From 475 answers 358 (75%) said they had tried to replace Windows with Ubuntu and had NOT been stuck/frustrated while 117 said they HAD gotten stuck/frustrated.
Some of the reasons for being stuck/frustrated were; couldn’t make a wireless connection, hardware/software compatibility, gaming support, printer drivers, and requiring certain software for work/business.
For obtaining Ubuntu a resounding 97% download the ISO with 1.5% each using a magazine DVD or buying a DVD/USB.
From the 475 answers, 271 (57%) upgrade every LTS release. 109 (23%) upgrade every six months, while around 7% each will upgrade yearly, hardly ever or every two years.
Out of 472 answers it seems that 297 (63%) use Ubuntu, 117 (25%) use Xubuntu, 19% each use Kubuntu, Lubuntu, and ‘other’. Only 6% use Budgie.
From 475 answers, 271 (57%) have switched to Ubuntu/Linux entirely. 204 said no.
To convert entirely; drivers for printers, gaming support, have [insert name of proprietary piece of software] run on Linux, better wifi support, and (of course) many wanting Microsoft Office to run in Linux.
With regards to WINE, 199 (42%) out of 475 use it to run Windows software. 276 do not. From 346 answers it seems that most rate WINE about a 5, 6 or 7 out of ten.
Software that people want to see on Linux include; Quickbooks, Pronote, AutoCAD, Lightroom, MS Office, Sketchup, iTunes, and many (unnamed) games.
We have 302 (multiple choice) answers asking what you use in a multi-boot machine. The answers showed 148 using Windows 10, 141 for Ubuntu, 83 use Windows 7, 40 for Xubuntu, 32 for Kubuntu, 22 for Lubuntu, 19 for Windows XP, 10 each for Budgie, Windows 8 and Windows Vista. 79 answers for ‘other’.
From 475 answers, 183 (39%) run Windows in a Virtual Machine. 292 do not.
Ubuntu/Ubports Touch
From 475 answers we have only 18 (4%) who did buy an Ubuntu Touch device. That’s 457 who did not.
From 347 answers only 8 (2%) updated Ubuntu Touch to Ubports Touch. That’s 339 who did not upgrade.
From 421 answers we have 10 (2.5%) who did remove Android from a device to flash it with Ubports Touch. 411 did not.
From 409 we have 17 (4%) who removed Touch from a device and flashed it with Android. 392 did not.
Other Distros
From 412 (multiple choice) answers it seems 173 like Debian, 157 Mint Cinnamon, 103 Mint Mate, 69 Fedora, 52 OpenSUSE, 45 Manjaro, and around 35 each for Arch, RedHat, and Puppy Linux. Around 20 each for FreeBSD, Solus Bodhi and Gentoo. 58 votes for ‘other’.
Desktop Environments
From 473 (multiple choice) answers we have 231 for GNOME, 137 for XFCE, 127 Cinnamon, 115 Mate, 103 KDE, 89 LXDE, and around 20 each for Budgie, Enlightenment and Pantheon. 33 for ‘other’.
Learning Linux
Some responses asking how you learned Linux were; online tutorials, distrowatch, books/magazines, friends, trial and error (a lot of people said that), forums, and University.
Responses to what motivated you to learn Linux; didn’t like Windows, wanted a more secure OS, job opportunities, free software, curiosity, wanted to keep an old PC, sick of Windows crashes.
Languages
From only 282 (multiple choice) responses it seems developers like; 184 (65%) Python, 93 (33%) C/C++, 86 (30%) PHP, roughly 50 each for Java and Javascript, and roughly 15 each for Ruby, Assembly and Perl. 55 (20%) chose ‘other’.
Full Circle Magazine
From 475 responses it seems the majority prefer to download the magazine from the FCM site (93%) with the remainder using Issuu.
Out of 475, 394 (83%) prefer the PDF, 21 go for the EPUB. While 60 (13%) go for both.
From 475, only 110 (23%) listen to the Weekly News. 365 (77%) do not. Out of 254, 145 download the FCWN from the FCM site, 63 (25%) play it on the FCM site, roughly 20 each use a podcast app on Android and on Apple. Only 3 listen in TuneIn Radio.
Articles
Ubuntu News averages a 4 out of 5 Command & Conquer averages a 4 out of 5 The How-To’s average a 4 out of 5 Inkscape averages a 3.5 out of 5 Researching With Linux averaged a 4 Everyday Ubuntu averages a 4 Linux Labs averaged a 4 My Story and My Opinion each average a 3.5 Reviews averaged a 4 Q&A averaged a 4.5
Some of the subjects you’d like to see covered in FCM were; hardware driver fixes, hardware and network issues, terminal, firewall tutorial, security, the return of My Desktop (Editor's note: if I don’t receive any, I can’t print any!), distros for old machines, home networking (DHCP, etc), video editing, linux commands, [retro] emulation, Arduino/Pi, CAD tools, and Conky.
Conclusion
So there you have it. I want to end by saying a massive thank you to all the people who took the time to go through the survey. Also a massive thank you to all the nice people who wrote such nice comments saying how much they love the magazine. It’s those comments that keep me (and I’m sure the writers) going every month.