Hi,

2014-04-24 23:07 GMT+08:00 Shantanu Tushar Jha <shantanu@kde.org>:

Hi folks!

Each of us keep an idea about our target users when we write KDE software, be it our workspaces, our applications or anything. From recent threads on the list, I have started doubting if the ideas I have in mind have been correct or not all the years I've been in KDE. So, I started asking myself about what my answer would be to "of all users of KDE software, what type of users are the majority?".

** When I look at a desktop[1] computer users today, I categorize them[2] as-

== Casual users ==
These users primarily want their computer to do a set of tasks, and do it as soon as possible. Whatever it takes, they *try* to spend the least time on the computer.

== Advanced users ==
These users are similar to casual ones in the sense that they want their work done as soon as possible. However, they go the extra mile to figure out ways in which they can optimize their workflow or use some software cleverly. This way they are actually able to get more done.

== Power users ==
These users generally use their computer for a even broader set of tasks and will try to solve each and every real world problem using software on their computers. Something that is very important for such users is the software to be highly customizable to suit their style of working. They will juice out each and every feature of the software to get the maximum benefit they can. Time is usually less of a problem for these folks, however they are also very picky about choosing a software that meets their needs.

== Students, employees on their company-provided computers ==
This category will actually have users from all of the above. However, there is a difference in the sense that they will not be the ones making the choice on what OS they will be using. The choice will usually be made for them by their schools, and companies respectively.

** Now, given the above set of users, going by only my observation and experience, the Operating System choice looks something like this-

== Casual users ==
most of them will use Windows as it still is the most popular among similar people, some of them will use OSX - mostly people who can afford an Apple computer

== Advanced users ==
The number of people using Windows will be a bit higher than the number of people using OSX, followed by a small fraction using a Linux distribution

== Power users ==
There will be some Windows users who install lot of tweaking tools, and quite some OSX users with the same pattern. However, most of these users will be using a Linux distribution (or BSD etc) with a choice of a desktop environment, email client etc) because they find the ease of customization and the feeling of control of the whole system.

Now, just in Power users, there will be a huge variety of distros and DEs that people will choose. When I think about DEs, (again this is only from experience and blog posts on the Internet) people who choose KDE do that because we offer *lots* of features and the maximum level of customization when compared to any other DEs.

So, that was my attempt at recollecting my thoughts from the last few days. I'll love to hear what you guys think about it - is it close to the reality? Or, did I get it all wrong? Or, there's just no way to be even remotely sure? This it will help me a lot as a KDE contributor, to make sure the software I write is a delight to our users.

[1] and laptops, netbooks etc, excluding mobile devices though

[2] and I am no usability expert as well, so I can be wrong about user profiles

Cheers!

Hmm... The classification of users should be correct, but about the user behavior...  I'm not sure about their choices.

Here in Taiwan, actually there are a number of advanced and power users choosing Linux (mostly ubuntu and Fedora).  As for the desktop environment they use, unity should be the most since most of them use ubuntu.  To be honest desktop environment wasn't important to them, as long as they can do their work.  So several years ago Gnome (2.x) was the most popular DE here, but now it should be unity.  However, I still believe that many of them like KDE too, though mostly hidden (and I have no idea why).

As for casual users and students, yes, mostly use Windows, but we're getting huge progress to promote FOSS / Linux in schools recently.  Last year New Taipei City purchased 10,000 computers with only Linux pre-installed.  (I wish I can have a chance sharing the experiences here in a big KDE event) Actually for young students, they don't care about what OS and what desktop environment they're using.  They can play and adopt to any OS and desktop environment very quickly.

Then, about employees in office here, Linux is popular for software engineers, but that should be because they need Linux for their work (embedded system, driver, ... etc).  It's not easy to change adults' behavior.

Finally, yes, the use of tablets are growing fast, but I don't think tablets and mobile devices will replace all personal and laptop computers.  At least not in schools and offices.  One of my young friend said, "Tablets are for users, and computers are for creators."

Regards,

Franklin

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