CompTIA Research

Summary of “Linux Environments Survey”

Survey Information

In order to better understand the usage of Linux in organizations, and the amount of IT worker support given to it, a Web-based survey was launched internationally on Dec. 6, 2006 to CompTIA IT Professional Access subscribers, randomly chosen CompTIA Network+ and CompTIA Security+ certified people and CompTIA Research panelists. Of the qualified respondents (668), 48 percent have three to nine years of experience working in the IT field, with one half working primarily in an IT department.

Key Findings

Nearly three-quarters of respondents have at least one employee support a Linux environment for their organization. More than half of those that do primarily use the Red Hat/Fedora Core distribution, and 19 percent use SUSE Linux. While one-quarter of respondents have no employees supporting Linux, there were 34 percent of respondents who had as many as four employees supporting it. The number of internal employees working with Linux has increased in the past five years. It only decreased at six percent of organizations, and remained the same at 34 percent. Nearly half (49%) of responding organization’s IT employees support the Linux environments of their customers. Two-thirds of respondents’ organizations currently use a Linux OS and/or software with Servers, and two-thirds also expect their organization to use Linux on Servers within the next 12-18 months.

Overall, usage of Linux among various products will not change much in the near future. However, there will be significantly more usage of Linux with Wireless networks and PDAs. While the majority (78%) of respondents hold no open-source certification, the highest number of certified individuals (12%) held CompTIA Linux+. Five percent held a Red Hat certification and four percent had an LPI certification. The largest percent (41%) have not received training to work with Linux through their current place of employment and do not expect to receive it. Twenty-two percent have received training. Despite the small number of those who hold certification, nearly three-quarters (72%) believe a vendor-neutral Linux certification is valuable to them/their organization. Overall, respondents believe it’s important for a person supporting Linux to complete training.

Twenty-eight percent of respondents are involved in hiring staff who need Linux knowledge, and 36 percent of respondents manage staff who need or could benefit from Linux skills. Managers are split on their staff having adequate skills or not to perform the tasks needed as 51% say overall, the skill level of their staff needing Linux skills is adequate. Yet, nearly half of all
managers (49%) said their staff skills are not adequate and 60 percent named basic Linux as a skill that was lacking.

The sixty-four percent of respondents who do not hire employees with Linux skills cited a variety of reasons why not. For example, some work at organizations where Linux is not used or they do not manage employees. Fifty-eight percent of all respondents responding to the survey are in favor of tax credits or financial support for all software training and/or certification.

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