Evans Data survey on the SCO suit [LWN.net]

Evans Data has announced the results of a new survey. "Of more than 400 developers focused on Linux development more than 70% said that the SCO lawsuit will 'probably not' or 'absolutely not' impact their companies decision to use Linux, 12% said that the lawsuit will affect adoption plans and 17% had no opinion." The survey also has concluded that there are more KDE than GNOME users.

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Nick Petreley and KDE/Gnome

Posted Aug 4, 2003 15:48 UTC (Mon) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link]

From the press release:

...considering it a factor in their adoption plans," said Nicholas Petreley, Evans Data's Linux analyst, "It is also interesting to note that KDE has taken a statistically significant lead in use and deployment after running neck and neck with GNOME for the past three years."

The reader should be aware of Nick Petreley's strong bias for KDE and against Gnome when considering the validity of this survey. Nick has written articles such as "KDE 3.1 vs. GNOME 2.2: How GNOME became LAME" [ http://www.linuxworld.com/story/32640.htm ] that reveal his feelings about KDE and Gnome.

I personally don't trust the results of this survey any more than I would of a survey that involved Steve Balmer and found a Microsoft a product to be a developer preference. The actual results may or may not be true, but the lack of objectivity on the part of the people involved causes me to take the results with a large block of salt.

Evans Data survey on the SCO suit

Posted Aug 13, 2003 21:57 UTC (Wed) by Eriko (guest, #14027) [Link]

Actually, Nick Petreley was hired to do the analysis for this survey. He was not associated with the collection of the data. So, regardless of his inclination to KDE over GNOME, the data was collected and compiled before being delivered to Nick for his analysis.

The data that you are referring to is a sample of the Linux development pool, there is trended data going back several years that can show KDE's growth over time. And the page that is referenced in the article summary is http://www.evansdata.com/n2/surveys/linux/linux_03_2_xmp1.shtml, check it out.

For more information about Evans Data's survey methodology, I would suggest reading more on Evans' site, http://www.evansdata.com/n2/methodology.shtml

Evans Data goes to great lengths to remove bias in their surveys and dismissing out of hand because you don't agree with the analysis is irrational.