May 2, 1998 Reader Survey Results

OS/2 users are said to be very attached to their operating system, even more so than other "zealous" computer users. We wondered just how loyal to the platform the average OS/2er is, and what other platforms he or she tinkers with. To find out, last issue we asked about "You and Your Computer".

Answers to our survey were accepted from May 2nd until May 13th. We had a total of 1,657 replies to our questionnaire with 103 "spoiled" entries (replies were considered "spoiled" if they did not contain an e-mail address, if all questions were not answered or if they were duplicates). This left 1,554 valid replies. The results were as follows:

What operating systems do you use?

We weren't surprised to find out that virtually everyone replying to our survey uses OS/2 (90.5% using Warp 4; 29.3% using some other version) -- we had assumed as much before the first results even came in. And well more than half our readers use some form of Windows (58.2% Win95) -- another no-brainer.

More interesting statistics are the ones relating to DOS and Linux. A surprising amount of our readers (41.1%) still use good old DOS on their computers, and almost a third (29.2%) are Linux users. Obviously OS/2 users are not loyal to OS/2 to the point of excluding other OSs from their computers. It seems likely that Boot Manager is a very valuable tool to most OS/2ers.

What operating system do you currently use most?

Again, we expected no surprises when we asked our second question, and we got none. Obviously the majority of OS/2 e-Zine! readers (84.9%) use OS/2 more than any other operating system. If anything, this number is interesting because it was not higher. No other OS was reported as the primary operating system by significant numbers of users, although Win95 and WinNT (with 6.0% and 5.1%, respectively) were far ahead of any other options as second and third place contenders. While some readers told us (in answer to our first question) that they use platforms like the Amiga or BeOS, absolutely no one told us they use either of those operating systems the most.

What operating system would you use most if you stopped using OS/2?

Perhaps our most interesting question last time was what OS our readers most preferred after OS/2. We have received many letters over the years telling us stories of readers moving on to Win95, WinNT or Linux and we were curious which was the real "future of computing".

Unfortunately for Microsoft, even if OS/2 were to disappear tomorrow, it seems that they still would not be able to claim its users back into their market. In fact, Linux slightly edged out Windows NT as the most likely runner-up OS for our readers. However, Windows in general was the real winner, with 48.8% of readers saying they would choose either Win3.x, Win95 or WinNT if they had to leave OS/2 behind.

Would you continue to use OS/2 even if IBM "officially" ceased updating it?

Since IBM has often seemed indifferent or even hostile toward OS/2 users, we wondered how important their commitment is to the OS/2 community. And apparently the answer is: not too important. Over three quarters of our readers (75.5%) told us they would either definitely or probably still use OS/2 even if IBM officially stopped all support of the product. Only 14.0% thought they definitely or probably would not continue using OS/2. Overall, it seems clear that OS/2ers are committed to OS/2.

That's it for this month. Don't forget to fill out this month's questionnaire and check back on May 30th for complete results.

Complete May 2, 1998 Survey Results

What operating systems do you use?

Category	Count	Percentage
Amiga	24	1.5%
BeOS	42	2.7%
DOS	639	41.1%
Linux	453	29.2%
Macintosh	117	7.5%
OS/2 (Warp 3 or earlier)	455	29.3%
OS/2 Warp 4	1,407	90.5%
Windows 3.x	466	30.0%
Windows 95	905	58.2%
Windows NT	557	35.8%
Unix (other than Linux)	249	16.0%
Other	80	5.1%

What operating system do you currently use most?

Category	Count	Percentage
Amiga	0	0.0%
BeOS	0	0.0%
DOS	2	0.1%
Linux	20	1.3%
Macintosh	8	0.5%
OS/2	1,320	84.9%
Unix other than Linux	18	1.2%
Windows 3.x	10	0.6%
Windows 95	94	6.0%
Windows NT	79	5.1%
Other	2	0.1%
I don't know	0	0.0%
I don't understand the question	1	0.1%
TOTAL	1,554	99.9%

What operating system would you use most if you stopped using OS/2?

Category	Count	Percentage
Amiga	1	0.1%
BeOS	32	2.1%
DOS	36	2.3%
Linux	454	29.2%
Macintosh	35	2.3%
OS/2	16	1.0%
Unix other than Linux	57	3.7%
Windows 3.x	44	2.8%
Windows 95	295	19.0%
Windows NT	419	27.0%
Other	11	0.7%
I don't know	150	9.7%
I don't understand the question	4	0.3%
TOTAL	1,554	100.2%

Would you continue to use OS/2 even if IBM "officially" ceased updating it?

Category	Count	Percentage
I definitely would	566	36.4%
I probably would	607	39.1%
I don't know	163	10.5%
I probably would not	157	10.1%
I definitely would not	60	3.9%
I don't understand the question	1	0.1%
TOTAL	1,554	100.1%