Survey Reveals Community Preferences for openSUSE's Future Direction

The openSUSE contributor community recently completed a comprehensive survey last week aimed at determining the project’s future direction. The results were obtained from 327 respondents, and it sheds some light on various aspects of openSUSE’s development, deployment and upgrade plans.

A pdf of the survey can be found on the openSUSE Wiki.

The questions and results are as follows:

Identity and Involvement

Question: Which group would you identify yourself with the most?

Interested: 3.98%
User of openSUSE distributions: 41.90%
Contributor to openSUSE distributions: 22.02%
Contributor to the openSUSE Project-wide: 8.87%
No answer: 1.53%
Not completed or Not displayed: 21.71%

Experience in openSUSE

How long have you been involved in openSUSE?

< 6 months: 7.03%
< 2 years: 12.84%
< 5 years: 10.40%
5 years and more: 46.18%
No answer: 1.83%
Not completed or Not displayed: 21.71%

This data demonstrates a significant portion of long-term users and contributors, which is indicative of a dedicated and stable community.

Deployment of openSUSE Leap

Where are you currently deploying openSUSE Leap?

My private server: 32.42%
My private laptop / desktop: 50.15%
My work machine (desktop/laptop): 33.33%
My cloud machines: 14.68%
Not applicable: 13.15%
Not completed or Not displayed: 21.71%

These findings show that openSUSE Leap has a diverse range of use cases, from personal computers to server environments.

Upgrade Preferences for Laptops/Desktops

How often would you like to upgrade to a new version of the openSUSE Leap successor distribution on a laptop or desktop machine?

Weekly: 10.40%
Every 3-6 months: 14.07%
Every 6-12 months: 20.49%
Every 12-18 months: 20.49%
No answer: 12.84%
Not completed or Not displayed: 21.71%

Upgrade Preferences for Servers/Cloud Servers

How often would you like to upgrade to a new version of the openSUSE Leap successor on a Server/Cloud Server?

Weekly: 2.75%
Every 3-6 months: 6.73%
Every 6-12 months: 11.01%
Every 12-18 months: 33.64%
No answer: 24.16%
Not completed or Not displayed: 21.71%

Contributor Preferences

What of the following options do you prefer to contribute your efforts toward?

Linarite: 19.88%
Slowroll: 19.88%
I'd prefer not to contribute to any Leap replacement and just focus on Tumbleweed: 20.80%
No answer: 17.74%
Not completed or Not displayed: 21.71%

Community’s Vision for openSUSE

What of the following overall options would you prefer most for the direction of openSUSE ?

Linarite: 23.85%
Slowroll: 27.83%
I'd prefer no Leap replacement and just focus on Tumbleweed: 17.43%
No answer: 9.17%
Not completed or Not displayed: 21.71%

Laptop/Desktop and Server/Cloud Server Preferences

For laptop/desktop machines:

Which of the following would you prefer for use on a laptop or desktop machine?

Linarite: 18.65%
Slowroll: 23.24%
I'd prefer no Leap replacement and just use Tumbleweed: 33.94%
No answer: 2.45%
Not completed or Not displayed: 21.71%

For server/cloud server machines:

Which of the following would you prefer for use on server or cloud server machine?

Linarite: 28.75%
Slowroll: 31.80%
I'd prefer no Leap replacement and just use Tumbleweed: 15.29%
No answer: 2.45%
Not completed or Not displayed: 21.71%

The results of this comprehensive survey offer a clear snapshot of the openSUSE community’s preferences and priorities, which will undoubtedly influence the project’s future direction.