Are Ubuntu users satisfied?

[KLRWLF]

Quick questions on user satisfaction with Ubuntu. How does Canonical know if users are satisfied with Ubuntu? I know users can read the many posts in the forums and get an idea or see how many times the distro has been downloaded, but exactly how does Canonical know if users are satisfied. Is there a user satisfaction survey or statistical report that states this? What if there is an extremely unsatisfied user? How is that user professionally dealt with? What do you think? Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

-KLRWLF

[aysiu]

I don't think they will ever know. Inevitably, there will be a mix of satisfied and unsatisfied users, and a poll will have a sample bias of some kind that will skew the results.

The best thing can do is continue to improve the software and keep looking at suggestions made at http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com for feedback.

[az]

Quick questions on user satisfaction with Ubuntu. How does Canonical know if users are satisfied with Ubuntu? I know users can read the many posts in the forums and get an idea or see how many times the distro has been downloaded, but exactly how does Canonical know if users are satisfied. Is there a user satisfaction survey or statistical report that states this? What if there is an extremely unsatisfied user? How is that user professionally dealt with? What do you think? Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

-KLRWLF

I'm pretty sure the customers who buy paid support from Canonical or any other of the hundreds of companies around the work who offer support could tell you about their customer's satisfaction. Those customers would rate both the software and the service at the same time.

For users who benefit from the software and rely on free or no service, there is no quantitative way to measure satisfaction.

[Het Irv]

Also, I think if Canonical screwed something up big time, (major, major change), they would hear about it fairly quickly. Kind of a "If we yell loud enough, they will listen". That doesn't work with every company, but Canonical seems to be pretty good about it. Case and point, 7.10 was a really shiny release, plenty of new bells and whistles, but for some users it was not very stable. With 8.04, Canonical focused on Stability and Usiblity. Yes, partly because of a LTS release, but I think they would have done that anyway.

[dmacdonald111]

I think it could be possible to have a satisfaction survey. Obviously this would not be able to have the same effect as a satisfaction survey for, say, your washing machine or your paid hosting company.

But I certainly think it would be possible for a satisfaction survey. Normally I would agree with something being free not being able to have a survey, but with Ubuntu, I don't think it would be that. Ubuntu has a 'code of ethics'. This could be used as the base for starting a survey.

Of course, this could only be created, or at least analysed and altered, by the people of Ubuntu - the people who know the Code of Ethics inside out.

[sailor2001]

I never knew ubuntu users were EVER satisfied...That's what's great about it.Always something new around the corner.

[madjr]

Quick questions on user satisfaction with Ubuntu. How does Canonical know if users are satisfied with Ubuntu? I know users can read the many posts in the forums and get an idea or see how many times the distro has been downloaded, but exactly how does Canonical know if users are satisfied. Is there a user satisfaction survey or statistical report that states this? What if there is an extremely unsatisfied user? How is that user professionally dealt with? What do you think? Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

-KLRWLF

you can check the ubuntu weekly newsletters, which include most blog posts and reviews (either good or bad, nothing to hide)
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue91


always there are a bunch of polls in the forums asking exactly that. As i see the majority is satisfied or had very little problems.

You can start your own poll if you like.

like aysiu said, Ubuntu (and linux in general) is a work in progress, try to contribute with support to new users in the forums, ideas at http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/ or if you're a coder have a blast with some of the open source projects or start your own.

[aaaantoine]

As long as there are still hardware compatibility issues, bugs, and missing features, I will never be satisfied!

That's not to say I don't like Ubuntu. Also, I knew there would be trade-offs when I dropped Windows.

[dhughes]

I would say by monitoring the general buzz and the number of downloads, probably also how busy their support people are.