User Perception Towards Open Source Operating Systems with Special Reference to GNU/Linux: A Chi-Square Analysis on User Expertise and its Influence on Technical Factors

Abstract

It is almost twenty years after GNU/Linux has been overblown. Still the market figures of Linux use are at very abysmal levels. In spite of the maturity and adoption, Linux is still remained as a second hand option for many users across the world. Linux has many advantages compared to its counterparts in the market and unlike any other proprietary operating system; some of the distributions are available for users as full featured software (wholesome OS). Even though Linux is proved to be best software in server market, the desktop market remained feeble. The market share of Linux is only laying less than 2% but rest is shared by all other operating systems. Windows alone attribute to approximately 85% of market share. Under the common marketing tenet that if a product is not adopted by market then it might be that, the users in the market either might not be aware of it or if they are aware, might not like it, or if they like it and still don’t use then it is the problem of availability, but this is not the problem to Linux. It is available freely (as a source code) from the respective websites and users across the world are familiar. Then where is the problem? Exactly here the need for this study arises. User perception is one of the important attributes which characterizes market share. Methods - In this study a survey was done to know if expertise of individuals influences their perception towards Linux. A hypothesis was formulated to test if any dependency exists in between these two variables (namely individual expertise and their perception towards Linux). Conclusion - it was found that the two variables are not significantly different; which means expertise of individuals significantly influences their perception towards Linux.