Over a third of Japanese engineers won’t use Linux on the desktop
japan.internet.com, in conjunction with JR Tokai Express Research, at the start of June looked at what engineers thought about changing to Linux. They interviewed 330 engineers (not just software, I don’t think), with 90.6% male (a sad reflection on women in the workplace), with 12.7% in their twenties, 43.9% in their thirtiees, 37.6% in their forties, 5.5% in their fifties, and just one person, or 0.3% of the sample, aged sixty or over.
The reasons for people refusing to use Linux on their primary desktop seem interesting (just for the record, I would probably put myself in this category); the top answer, the lack of usable applications, doesn’t mention what sort of stuff people feel is missing. Next, Windows (Microsoft Office, I suppose) document compatibility; if my workplace is anything to go by, there are a number of (needlessly, IMO) complex macro-based documents that we use, which, I hear, causes major problems for the free software alternatives. The third reason, difficulty in set up and settings is mostly untrue, although there are problems if you have an unsupported device that needs a manual install. Other applications often don’t stick a nice friendly icon on your menus when they finish, which is a genuine problem.
Q1: At work, what operating systems do you use as a client or a stand-alone machine? (Sample size=330, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage Windows 327 99.0% Linux 43 13.0% UNIX 39 10.9% Macintosh 26 7.9% Don’t use a PC 2 0.6% Other 1 0.3% Q2: Do you think you could use desktop Linux as a replacement for your current Windows, etc machine? (Sample size=330)
Yes, currently using 3.9% Yes, I’d use if I had the chance 33.6% No (to Q3) 35.8% Don’t know 26.7% I presume the difference between 13.0% reporting using Linux in Q1 versus 3.9% reporting it in Q2 is the difference between using Linux as a primary machine (eg document preparation in Open Office instead of Microsoft Office) in Q2 versus having Linux installed for application development or other specific uses.
Q3: For what reason won’t you use desktop Linux as a replacement for Windows? (Sample size=118, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage Few usable applications 81 68.6% Not very compatible with Windows document formats 62 52.5% Set up or settings are hard to do 47 39.8% Linux is suited for use as a server 31 26.3% Hard to use 27 22.9% Costs for effective support, etc are expensive 27 22.9% Worried about security 4 3.4% Don’t know 1 0.8% Other 19 16.1%
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bartek said,
June 15, 2006 @ 01:47
wow … 34% would like to dump Windows for Linux … interesting …
LinuxUser said,
June 15, 2006 @ 02:16
“Not very compatible with Windows document formats”
Oh how very wrongly presented this is. It’s abundantly the other way around, my friend, and it should be stated as such, since it could even be seen as an offensive, blatantly wrong statement by Linux users.
The side that isn’t compatible is Windows, not Linux.
Linux has been doing ALL IT CAN to be as compatible as possible for about 15 years now, against all odds (”proprietary” formats, “tweaked” versions of formerly open formats, …).
Sure, since many specific apps are available on Windows only this means that there can be a lack of a similar app available to read its file format on Linux, and this *is* an issue indeed.
But Windows itself supports open formats and specifications poorly if at all.
Windows doesn’t:
- support the open, interoperable standard WebDAV (RFC 2518) as intended (”embraced”, “extended” and “extinguished” format version), it *REQUIRES* a bogus “MS-Author-Via: DAV” tag to be sent
- fully support RFC 2083 (PNG graphics format) in Internet Explorer
- nearly fully support *worldwide* W3C standards in Internet Explorer
- even support something as basic as RFC 2617 (HTTP Digest Access Authentication) in Internet Explorer
- have any intention to support ISO 26300 (Open Document Format) in Microsoft Office and instead pushes its own very semi-open “Open”XML format that they can render fully incompatible at a whim again in the next version (e.g. via encryption), or that they can put their patent lawyers to good use for in case of minuscule violation of the “standardized” format
- publish NTFS file system specs for proper (and crucial!) interoperability with other systems
- support lots of internet RFC in Outlock etc. (Outlock is said to initially have violated an outraging number of 666(!!)
different well-accepted and internationally used internet RFCs)
- support standard .SVG format (instead it’s a bastardized version in Vista)
- use common, standardized USB device transfer protocols for USB media players but instead their own somewhat extended version with *non-reasonable* and Open Source incompatible licensing terms (this means that many, many USB media player **HARDWARE** devices can be interfaced with quite poorly with the standard protocol by Linux applications)
- provide sufficient specifications for their Windows networking formats and change those on a whim every couple of months, as stated by the Samba project which is going the painful way of permanently readjusting their protocol suite to match latest Windows (mis-)behaviour
- publish full and *correct* (thanks, MSDN! we loooove you) Win32 API specs for other systems to be able to become interoperable (Wine on Linux has been very hard at work to fully get Windows programs to run on Linux, but so far it doesn’t have a 100% success rate yet)
- avoid hundreds of other major or minor interoperability sins that I don’t really want to think of to list here
Windows does:
- announce a new Windows interoperability area at http://www.microsoft.com/interop/default.mspx
to boldly and incredibly pretend that they’ve been doing lots of work towards interoperability (har har har!)
All in all, this is ample evidence that such a poll phrase should really be completely turned on its head, at least when it comes to Windows core parts and not third-party applications.
Microsoft is market leader in large part due to (almost or truly) illegally distorting free market competition, certainly not due to lots of “innovation” (a word which they’re so proud to mention in every 10th sentence almost).
OK, enough now, it’s still nice to see that some people are clever enough to openly and clearly think of what system to choose
LinuxInSchools said,
June 15, 2006 @ 04:35
This is an opinion poll. Remeber these are peoples opinion (even if the possibility of the people where some how steered). What this shows me is that we need our Japanese friends to start a Linux education push. It’s obvious these people (the 330) are little stuck on the way Linux used to be (acient computer history). Granted that unsupported hardware is trouble some, but c’mon people. Who hasn’t had a peice of hardware that would not work in Windows. Sometimes people Think windows is a hardware utopia. No No No it is not! Older, but servicable, hardware gets dropped like flies in Windows. New hardware can be a real pain in Windows too. Video Cards are still problematic in Windows. You are shoot craps if you put the best Video Card on the market in your machine. As far as software goes, I think the Unix philosphy of do one thing really good, versus Windows do everything possible under the sun so your users never have to use another program, blows turkey snot. Of course to get people to think “backwards” is difficult. On the surface Linux and Windows are not very different. Look, Feel, Functionality, all there, all works similar. The philosphy, almost everything is backwards from Windows. That is what we need to do as linux folks. Educate Educate Educate! And That is My Opinion!
Grishnakh said,
June 15, 2006 @ 09:51
Very strange. At the American company I work at, thousands of engineers use Linux on the desktop, because Windows just isn’t very usable and doesn’t have very good application support. We use high-end EDA applications like those from Cadence and Mentor Graphics. While Windows versions of some of these might exist, Windows doesn’t have very good support for things like NFS file systems and remote job execution, whereas this stuff is trivial in Linux/Unix. These things are absolutely necessary for a computing infrastructure suited for large-scale IC design and validation.
What kind of crappy applications are the Japanese engineers using which don’t work in Linux?
Methuselah said,
June 15, 2006 @ 21:46
Crappy applications?
I’ll say this one more time. Without a real CAD package linux will never Never NEVER penetrate Architecture, Engineering, and Construction. Say what you want computer geeks are not the only technical folks on the planet.
Jim said,
June 15, 2006 @ 23:18
“Real” CAD package? How about NX from UGS?
Chris Waters said,
June 16, 2006 @ 08:35
On top of the obvious spin (over one-third said they would ues it if they had a chance, but the focus is on the one third would wouldn’t), there’s a more subtle piece of spin here! 35.6% said no, and 33.6% said yes, if they had the chance. So there’s more who said no, right? WRONG! There’s an extra 3.9% who said they’re already using it, and if they’re already using it, then they OBVIOUSLY would if they had the chance, so really, there’s 37.5%–the largest single group–who would use it if they had the chance!
mari stitt said,
June 16, 2006 @ 09:26
I have instinctual feelings and almost always they are right — at 83 with low vision but thinking I’d like to try linux when I get my new computer in a couple weeks. Any advice? — mari
Gen Kanai weblog said,
June 16, 2006 @ 12:05
Japanese engineers and open source
Ken points us to a survey of Japanese software engineers and 99% of them are Windows users. I know a lot of talented software and Internet engineers and a sample of my engineer friends would not be 99% Windows. This says A LOT about Japan. This says to…
WB7ODYFred said,
June 16, 2006 @ 15:07
Maria Stitt, check http://www.mepis.org or http://www.ubuntulinux.com for LiveCD Linux to download 700MB and burn an iso9660 file to CD.
http://www.justlinux.com/ Can help answer your general Linux questions.
http://www.mepislovers.org Can help with specific
MEPIS linux questions
http://www.theopencd.org Download the 300MB and burn the binary file .iso CD image to a CD disk. Then boot from the CDROM by changing your computers BIOS to boot from the CDROM first before trying to boot from the Hard Disk.
The OpenCD 3.1 has free open source software your can install on Windows 32 Operating system. FireFox and OpenOffice 2.0
If you boot from TheOpenCD, then it boots a live version of Ubuntu Linux that you play and test with out evering changing or corrupting your windows environment.
This would be the suggestions I give to you to try.
I tried a version of Mepis Lite 3.4.1 on my 900Mhz AMD desktop circa year 2001. Was suprised that it found the 56K Audio Modem Riser card hardware and now I could use the internal WIN Modem to connect dialup to local ISP at 53,333 bits per second. This was great stuff.
Comment, seems Japanese culture is very group oriented and not very many persue individualistic choices. Do what the boss says and follow the group lead. Sort of like the saying
“nobody ever got fired for buying IBM” mentality.
Don’t try something new, the boss might disapprove.
I did support getting MIPS Linux ported to run on NEC Electronics Vr series MIPS microprocessors for handheld computer reference designs in 1999,2000.
Unfortunately, the head of the division was keeping Microsoft happy with WINCE 2.0 support for PocketPC. Trying to create a market for 1/4 watt microprocessors for handhelds. Microsoft eventual dropped supporting WINCE for MIPS and SH3 processors, choosing to focus on ARM and Strong ARM, (ala Intel cpus)
Vr4181 Agenda Vr3 Handheld
Vr4121 Cassiopia Handheld
Vr4122
Vr4131
Fred Finster
WB7ODY
WB7ODYFred said,
June 16, 2006 @ 15:39
Comment, seems Japanese culture is very group oriented and not very many engineers pursue individualistic choices at work. Do what the boss says and follow the group lead. Sort of like nobody ever got fired for buying IBM mentality. Don’t try something new like Linux, the boss might disapprove.
I did support getting MIPS Linux ported to run on NEC Electronics Vr series MIPS microprocessors for handheld computer reference designs in 1999,2000.
Sent MIPS Linux developer Brad La Ronde to the Paris Linux show 2000 with the worlds first ever handheld design running Linux.
Unfortunately, the head of the division was keeping Microsoft happy with WINCE 2.0 support for PocketPC. Trying to create a market for 1/4 watt microprocessors for handhelds. Microsoft eventual dropped supporting WINCE for MIPS and SH3 processors, choosing to focus on ARM and Strong ARM, (ala Intel cpus) So NEC Electronics America lost anyway. Should have more strongly supported running Linux on MIPS processors.
Vr4181 Agenda Vr3 Handheld
Vr4121 Cassiopia Handheld
Vr4122
Vr4131
Vr5432
http://france.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2000092500520PREM
http://www.linuxdevices.com/products/PD6574796610.html
Fred Finster
WB7ODY
historia de uno :: Linux en el trabajo en Japón :: June :: 2006 said,
June 16, 2006 @ 16:21
[…] A través de Linux-Watch me he encontrado este artículo en el que analizan los resultados de una encuesta sobre el uso de Linux como máquina de escritorio en el trabajo por parte de ingenieros japoneses. […]
In my mind :: Linux & myter :: June :: 2006 said,
June 17, 2006 @ 08:03
[…] Jag läste en artikel från WhatJapanThinks.com om en undersökning som gjorts av japan.internet.com tillsammans med JR Tokai Express Research i början av juni. Undersökningen ställdes till 330 japanska ingenjörer om att byta till Linux på deras nuvarande desktops. […]
Aaron Cirilo said,
June 19, 2006 @ 11:08
i’ve used linux off and on since 2001. i’m no longer in the IT field so i really just want a stable, usable system. I used XP for the last 3 years because it was to much work to get linux to do want i needed. This week i did a little research and installed mepis…. over the last 3 years a lot has changed… very good system so far. only thing missing so far..is a software that will compete with QuickBooks.
feels good to have software this isn’t pirated(because it’s to expensive to buy).
Rich on Linux, OSS and other stuff » One-third of Japanese engineers willing to try desktop Linux! said,
June 20, 2006 @ 06:08
[…] I couldn’t resist. The story I’m talking about today is titled, “Over a third of Japanese engineers won’t use Linux on the desktop.” Of course, what’s funny about this is that it means almost a third would switch. […]
Linux Platense » Encuesta de Linux entre los ingenieros japoneses said,
July 1, 2006 @ 03:36
[…] Artículo completo en What Japan Thinks. […]
Linux doing well as Japanese server OS » 世論 What Japan Thinks said,
March 18, 2007 @ 22:58
[…] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, or check out my weekly newsletter. Thanks for visiting! japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into server operating systems in small and medium-sized businesses. On the 10th of March 330 people employed in companies with less than 100 people, working in management, board-level, sales, technical or other specialist positions completed the survey. It may be worth comparing the results here with a previous survey on desktop operating systems. […]