Ubuntu turned 15 this year and is still going strong — but what next for the leading desktop Linux distribution? Well, to find out Canonical has launched a brand new user survey.
The responses collected through the survey will be used to ‘inform’ decisions on Ubuntu desktop for the next two years
The Ubuntu 20.04 LTS survey is set to run until January 10, 2020 and hopes to gather feedback from a diverse pool of Linux users.
The responses garnered by the survey will be used to “inform” the future direction of Ubuntu, its roadmap, feature set, and so on.
Heck, it’s even possible that the results could affect the eventual makeup of the upcoming LTS release, due next April.
New Ubuntu Survey
Rhys Davies, team manger of Robotics at Canonical, explains why the company felt launching a survey was the best avenue for gathering responses.
“Are there developments in open source or trends that […] we’re just not seeing?”
Canonical
“Throughout the development process, our teams are in the various forums and threads, listening to your feedback to help inform our decision making,” he writes.
“But in the run-up to something big like an LTS release, is it possible we find ourselves lost in an Ubuntu bubble? Are there developments in open source or trends on a level that we’re just not seeing? And if so, what are they?”
Hence this survey: an antidote to the echo chamber.
Canonical wants to learn what people like about Ubuntu as it is, but also what they don’t like, i.e. the areas the distro falls short on and needs to improve in.
So, to ensure any picture painted is an accurate one, it’s encouraging folks to take the survey regardless of whether they use Ubuntu, have used Ubuntu in the past, or have never though the distro right for their needs.
The survey itself is somewhat long, and spans a wide gamut of questions. There are basic queries like ‘is Ubuntu stable enough?’ and ‘easy to set up?’ though to topics requiring more detail, like ‘what could Ubuntu to do to make your life easier?’ and ‘what do you see as the most major technological growth area in the next 2 years?’.
You can take part in the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS survey using the link below.
Update: Survey no longer active.
Once all of the results are in and Canonical has extracted and extrapolated the answered within, they say they will “publish the results for all to see” — just like it did two years ago.
But do keep in mind that the results of the survey will only used to inform development decisions, not dictate them.