One week and a mammoth 15,000 responses later, the results of our Ubuntu@10 Reader Survey are now ready to share — and they make for fascinating reading.
We launched our survey to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Ubuntu, which has risen to become the world’s most popular desktop Linux distribution.
The aim of our questionnaire? Mostly to satisfy curiosity than undertake any kind of serious, studious or academic “Ubunthropometrical” research. We waned to find out which Ubuntu releases wowed and wooed, check the community pulse on recent changes, and, obviously, crown a wallpaper winner.
But enough with the preamble. Scroll on to gawp at what we gleaned…
“Jump On” Version of Ubuntu
Kicking off our ‘Ubuntu at Ten Reader Survey’ was an easy question: which version of Ubuntu was your first. This aimed to find out the most popular ‘jump on’ point; the release that brought most people to Ubuntu.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of first timers came by way of an LTS release.
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS were the most common “jump on points” for respondents, followed by Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog; the very first release, which is rather surprising), and then Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn).
If we move LTS releases to one side, there is a noticeable drop in the number of people experiencing the OS “for the first time” after Ubuntu 11.04. This surprised me; I had expected a sizeable bias towards newer releases on the assumption that it has, over time, gotten more popular.
But as we’ll see later, that assumption may be a little flawed.
Favourite Version of Ubuntu
No read survey would be worth its proverbial salt if it didn’t ask the most obvious zero-sum question: which version of Ubuntu was the best! After all, the one we use first isn’t necessarily our favourite.
So our second question asked you which release you consider to be the best.
I had expected newer versions to score better, and this time they did. The three most recent LTS releases scored highest, and in reverse chronological order:
Favourite Default Wallpaper
OMG! Ubuntu is kind of like the TMZ of Linux reportage, so we couldn’t resist dipping our toes into more trivial areas.
Whilst writing the question I knew that the winner of most favourite default desktop wallpaper would be that of 8.04 LTS – and blow me down with a hardy heron’s feather, it was:
Not shown in the graphic above, but of interest to anyone who’s stopped by our comments section on new wallpaper reveal day, was fourth place choice: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Yes, the wallpaper readers popularly refer to as ‘purple vomit’ came in 4th.
Keeping with bodily affectations, the “bruised skin” wallpaper of Ubuntu 7.04 ‘Feisty Fawn’ proved the least popular, garnering just 38 votes.
Opinions, Thoughts and Words
Moving on to more flexible questions now.
Presented with a list of 14 statements (a mixture of positive and negative), we asked readers pick up to three statements they associate with Ubuntu. Their choices: “Well Supported”, “Innovative” and “Stylish”:
A not-insignificant 20% picked “[Ubuntu is] losing its way”. I don’t think that’s an entirely unexpected response given the recent pivot towards Ubuntu Phone, a new desktop proffering convergence, and the resulting lack of user-facing development on desktop.
When asked to enter “one word that sums up Ubuntu” positive statements like “Free”, “human”, etc., came out top. (For stat hounds “rubbish” was the most suggested negative term, clocking up 64 mentions).
We also asked you to pick three areas where development should focus in the near future. Gaming and hardware scored (predictably) high, as did a desire for a new visual look and further work on the new Unity 8 desktop:
Most Popular Desktop Environment & Flavour
An Ubuntu survey would not be worth its weight in rounded percentiles if it neglected to ask about desktop environment preferences.
Unity came out on top with 63% (a predictable result for an Ubuntu-focused news site, perhaps), followed by GNOME Shell (12%) and XFCE (6%).
A rogue 8% of people checked “other/unsure” (there was no entry to enter anything else). Had MATE been listed, I’d wager this section would’ve been lower, so that was an oversight on my part.
On the “Official Ubuntu Flavour” front, Ubuntu GNOME stole the show. Xubuntu came in next (chiming with the DE stats), followed by Kubuntu and Lubuntu. Those not using an official flavour (i.e., those who use regular Ubuntu) were invited to skip the question.
A few folks poked us on Twitter to ask why elementary OS (sic) and Linux Mint were not listed as choices in this section. No conspiracy here; while both are based on Ubuntu they are not official flavours.
Talking of Popularity…
One of the more contrasting results was that of “perceived popularity”.
Asked to rate on a scale of 1-5 the degree to which they think Ubuntu has increased in popularity with each release the results — which are 1 for less, and 5 for more — were clear: you think Ubuntu is getting more popular with each release.
Short of actual hard data/quantifiable user stats from Canonical it’s hard to tell if this is the case. Anecdotally it seems likely.
Google Trends shows the opposite – Ubuntu getting less “popular” (overall, in terms of searches, barring release day spikes) with each release compared to the previous.
Ubuntu Phones & Dual Boots
We avoided dealing too much with Ubuntu for Phones, Tablets and TVs in the survey, though we did ask for a snap judgement on whether you thought the OS and its first handsets will prove a success, be it with enthusiasts, mainstream users, or both.
On a sliding scale of 1 to 5, 15% said ‘unsuccessful’ (1), 22% said ‘not very successful’ (2), 34% split even (3), 20% said successful (4) and 8% said ‘very successful’ (5).
One stat that was firmly in keeping with expectations was the question of “dual booting”.
Asked if you use Ubuntu alongside other operating systems, be it OS X, Windows, or other Linux distributions, your collective votes came marginally in favour of ‘yes, I dual boot’. This is a response similar to that yielded by the gaming poll we held in the summer.
It also seems that you folks are just as or more excited for new releases of Ubuntu — Uninspiring Unicorns included — compared to the past. That’s an encouraging sign!
What’s In a Name?
Our final question asked you to enter your preferred name for Ubuntu 15.04. To say there was plenty of variety would be an understatement!
Nevertheless, basing it on the “animal” or “adjectives” alone shows more commonality. Interestingly no one guessed “Vivid Vervet”, and neither term was of the most popular (those that scored 10% or more) suggestions.
Disclaimers and fresh pants
Lest anyone get their cheap-o underwear in a knot over the results, allow me to state with emphatic gusto that this survey was conducted for fun. The findings ought to be taken with a grain of salt and should not be seen as anything more (or less) than a sample of OMG! Ubuntu! readers.
I am not a statistician; some questions could’ve been presented in a better format (e.g., radio buttons vs. checkboxes, wider sliding scale, etc.).
All percentages listed above are as reported by Google Sheets and in most cases rounded up. Not all questions were mandatory. Where more than one option could be selected the percentage listed is based on those who selected that sole answer, and is not the percentage of the one answer in relation to the others selected (hence it won’t add up to 100%).
You can view a full version of the graphics above on Imgur.
Finally, I want to say a really colossal thank you to the 15,000+ people who took a few minutes out to complete the survey, share it and offer feedback. You helped make a tedious exercise more enjoyable!