2012 GNOME Survey ================= Phoronix is hosting the GNOME user survey on the behalf of Felipe Contreras and other independent GNOME users. Welcome to the second annual GNOME user survey. This survey is not blessed by the GNOME team, it's built by users. This survey is anonymous, but all information that the users provide (raw data) will be publicly available to allow for independent analysis. Note that you may skip questions as you like, but it should only take a few minutes. 01. Do you know what GNOME is? x Yes (skip to question 3) No 02. Which of the following best resemble your desktop? Windows Mac OS X GNOME 2 GNOME 3 Unity KDE Other 03. What is the latest version of GNOME you are using? 3.8 / Development Code 3.6 3.4 3.2 3.0 3.0 2.x I don't know x I'm not using it currently 04. How are you answering this survey? I printed this for somebody without access to Internet I am acting on behalf of somebody with accessibility problems Somebody else has requested that I do this x I am acting of my own accord I don't understand the question Other 05. How did you hear about this survey? Friend Twitter or other micro-blogging platform Reddit, Digg, or other social news site Facebook, Google+, or other social networking site Phoronix Blog or Blog Planet Other 06. What best describes your feeling about GNOME 3 compared to GNOME 2? x It's definitely an improvement It's definitely worse I don't feel strongly either way I don't know 07. How satisfied are you with GNOME version 3? Completely x Mostly Half-Way Barely Not At All Haven't Tried It 08. How satisfied are you with GNOME version 2? Completely Mostly x Half-Way Barely Not At All Never Tried It 09. If you could change three things in GNOME, what would they be? More configuration options Easier configuration Bring back traditional interface (GNOME 2) Improve Nautilus Improve notifications Add shutdown / restart / suspend options Improve themes x Better multi-monitor support Listen to users Improve Evolution x Reduce dependencies Improved reliability / stability Add minimize / maximize buttons Add support for tiled window management Faster shell search Collaborate more with other communities Fix driver issues Integrate Zeitgeist Render KDE apps seamlessly Reduce dead space in the theme Better compatibility with Compiz and other window managers Developer attitude 10. What features of GNOME do you rely on, and would not like them to go away? Brasero, Dia, Evince, Gcalctool, gThumb, Planner 11. How do you compare your current GNOME version with the version from one year ago? Better No Changes Worse Cannot Say 12. Where do you run GNOME? Desktop Laptop Netbook Tablet Other 13. Have you contributed to the GNOME project? Yes x No 14. Have you ever contacted the GNOME team? Yes, successfully Yes, unsuccessfully No, I don't know how x No, never had the need 15. Which other desktop environments have you used in recent years? x KDE Unity x Xfce LXDE Enlightenment MATE Cinnamon Other 16. Are you using some window arrangement extension on top of GNOME? No, pure GNOME GNOME + Compiz Window Arrangement Plug-Ins I don't know Other 17. Do you have any comments or suggestions for the GNOME team? I personally prefer Xfce 4.8 to GNOME (2 and 3) – not because I believe the GNOME Project is making bad decisions; not because I miss the GNOME 2 shell; and especially not because Linus Torvalds, my friends, or anyone else uses or used Xfce. I simply prefer the simple but attractive styling of Xfce's window manager and panels and the low memory requirements of the Xfce programs and libraries. In fact, I think the GNOME Project is doing a good and important job of continuing to make the free desktop more attractive and accessible to all users regardless of technical skill. As a hacker and advocate of free software, I feel a bit of pride when I see the work of projects like GNOME. It's great to be able to show people not only the ethical advantages, but also the high quality and ease of use of free software. I recognize – and appreciate – that GNOME 3 isn't primarily designed for me or my workflow – that it diverges a bit from the traditional desktop metaphor in favor of something that many people should find new, interesting, and intuitive. Those of us who want lots of workspaces, shade and iconify buttons on our window decorations, tabbed windows, and keyboard shortcuts for window tiling are better served by other window managers like Xfwm4 and Fluxbox. No one is forced to use any particular window manager, and the itch scratchers who write these programs need not try to satisfy every last user. We have dozens of window managers and panel applications. It's healthy for some of them to experiment with new directions; doing so can make the free desktop more diverse and more appealing to a wider range of users. Note that these words are in part inspired by those of Bradley M. Kuhn (), but they reflect the thoughts I've had on GNOME 3 since even before Bradley wrote his blog post. Having said that, as someone who doesn't use GNOME but wants to see GNOME succeed as a viable and competitive desktop solution for a wide range of users, I have two concerns about the future of GNOME and GNOME's ability to reach as many users as possible. First, I worry that the addition of dependencies (such as systemd) may make GNOME unsuitable for some free software distributions, like Debian, Gentoo, and FreeBSD. Portability is an important feature for any piece of software. GNOME's libraries and programs should not be written only for a certain group of GNU/Linux distributions. Nor should GNOME's development conflict with the goals of, or demand an unreasonable amount of work from, the maintainers of distribution projects. My second concern is one of hardware and drivers support. Many people are still using GNU/Linux and other Linux-based operating systems on computers that don't have powerful GPUs or for which there are no free Linux and X.org video drivers. These computers include older (but still fully functional) PCs and new personal electronics with ARM or MIPS CPUs. It's great that GNOME aims to offer a compelling interface to owners of recently built and carefully purchased PCs, but other users should still be left with a decent and usable desktop. Projects like Trisquel and KDE have for a long time maintained a good balance between eye candy and hardware support; it's important that GNOME and similarly wide-reaching projects do the same.