Commercial distributions of Linux have garnered support in the past primarily because of access to technical support. In the last six months 25% fewer Linux developers believe that support is the biggest advantage a commercial version of Linux has over a non-commercial version. Twenty percent of Linux developers don't believe there are any advantages to a commercial version over a non-commercial version, a 50% increase in the last six months.
"The sharp drop off of belief in 'support' being the biggest advantage is another strong indicator of the quality of the non-commercial offerings. Considering that 85% of Linux developers feel the biggest advantage of non-commercial Linux is the ease and cost of upgrades and maintenance, it can be taken as another sign of the maturity of the non-commercial distributions of Linux," said John F. Andrews, COO of Evans Data.
Additionally, the February 2005 survey of more than 400 Linux developers found that the largest disparity between importance and satisfaction with Linux development tools can be found in Error Detection Tools and Debuggers. Error detection tools are believed to be "critical" or "very important" to almost 50% of Linux developers but less than 25% are satisfied and 23% indicated that they "need work." Debuggers are the third most important tool but only 40% of developers think the tools are "excellent" or "very good." (http://www.evansdata.com/cgi/relocate.php?key=lnx2005_1_2)
About Evans Data Corporation
Evans Data Corporation (www.evansdata.com) provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence based on in-depth surveys of the global developer population. Evans' syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.
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