* Evans Data Linux research
It could be argued that among Linux users who know the technology best, application developers who write code on Linux boxes for Linux systems are in the upper echelon. One interesting trend among this influential sub-group of the Linux user base is a penchant for non-commercial or homespun Linux distributions.
A recent survey of 419 Linux developers by research firm Evans Data found that more Linux programmers now prefer to use non-commercial, or free, versions of Linux, as opposed to Linux distributions from such vendors as Red Hat or Novell’s SuSE. Among the programmers surveyed, 34% said they preferred free Linux to paid Linux, while 28% said they preferred commercial distributions (the rest said they had no preference). This is a stark change from two years ago, when Evans Data conducted a similar-sized poll, and found that 39% preferred commercial Linux distros, vs. 19% who preferred free Linux.
Of the developers surveyed, 20% said they did not believe that commercial Linux versions had any advantages over a non-commercial Linux. Evans Data says that this may be due to an increase in resources for self-help support of Linux.
Among the developers who preferred non-commercial Linux, 85% said that the reason for their choice was the low cost and ease of upgrading their systems through open source resources on the ‘Net.
So as Red Hat and SuSE continue to grab headlines and market share, be sure that the Debians, Gentoos, Mandrakes and the other smaller, free distributions will have a prominent place in the Linux food chain.
