Survey on the use of
Linux in Mauritius

Linux User Group of Mauritius

www.linux.mu

Avinash Meetoo

avinash@linux.mu

07.08.2003

Who are we?

Linux User Group of Mauritius

Exists since November 2000

Main roles

Advocate, Educate
Support and Socialise

Coordinate Linux and OSS
activities in Mauritius

Web site and mailing list

www.linux.mu

Scope of the survey

What we were looking for

Patterns of use of Linux and OSS in Mauritius

Meaning of Open Source

Knowledge of our existence

Methodology

Sample of 80-100 IT managers

Questionnaire based

Anonymous

The results

Licensing

The copyright holders are

Linux User Group of Mauritius and
Avinash Meetoo

The results are released under the
GNU Free Documentation License

Free to copy and distribute

Free to update

But preserve all the copyright notices

Heard about Linux?

A vast majority of IT managers has heard of Linux (92.5%).

The rest (7.5%) must be living on another planet :-)

How did you discover it?

Multiple answers were allowed.

We see the ever increasing role of the Internet as a means to propagate knowledge.

Where do you use Linux?

38% of the IT managers questioned do not use Linux, neither at work nor at home.

Of those 62% left, the majority use Linux only at work.

This seems to indicate that Linux is being used as a server operating system.

Distribution used?

Pattern of use of distributions in Maurtius is exactly the same as worldwide.

Red Hat rules !

Applications used?

Surprisingly, the type of application mostly used is Office applications (presumably Star Office and Open Office).

On the other hand, server applications (Mail, Web, Database and File servers) amount to 55% which is coherent with the deduction made previously.

What about paid support?

A majority thinks that Linux support should not be commercial.

This is very surprising given that most of those questioned use Linux at work.

An interpretation is that they are satisfied with the level of support they get in forums and websites.

Deployment date?

The majority of those questioned already have deployed Linux-based solutions at work. This is absolutely fantastic :-)

Unfortunately, 35% do not know whether they'll do it or not.

They are the ones we need to convince...

What is Open Source?

One out of five IT managers does not know anything about Open Source...

Any contribution?

Frightening !

38% do not know how to help.

And about 20%

do not want to help.

Linux and Open Source is all about give and take !!!

Heard about LUGM?

55% of Mauritian IT managers know that LUGM exists.

Satisfied with LUGM?

About half of those who know LUGM are satisfied with it.

It is important that those who are unsatisfied with LUGM's actions come forward and make proposals.

That's the whole point of having a community...

Conclusions

A majority of Mauritian IT Managers

know Linux and Open Source software

have deployed Linux and OSS-based solutions

do not require commercial support

do not contribute to the OSS movement.
They could help

Technically	<=> participate in OSS development

Financially	<=> reward deserving developers & projects

Logistically	<=> help in a LUG (for example LUGM :-)

Avinash Meetoo

2003-08-05T13:45:17