syslog

The 2005 editorial survey results are in. After a panicky moment or two when I thought our distributor had mailed all the surveys without their postage-paid return envelopes (thankfully, that was just a random occurrence for which I apologize...), we began to receive completed surveys, and they're mostly tallied now.

I did hope we'd have a more high-tech survey system in place this year, but, alas, our Web support did not permit that. So, I apologize for the old-school method of paper and pen, and I'll keep my fingers crossed that next time we'll be able to support an online survey for greater convenience and (possibly) accuracy. Here are some preliminary results from the 2005 returns.

Which Unix operating systems do you administer?
Linux (89%), Solaris (53%), Mac OS X (36%), HP (19%), BSD (16%), AIX (16%)

What type of servers do you administer?
Web application (74%), Database (72%), File/print (69%), Application (64%), Storage (56%)

Which languages do you use most often?
Shell (92%), Perl (87%), PHP (61%), C (61%), Python (37%)

Which topics are you most interested in:
Security (89%), OS-specific administration (73%), Scripting languages (73%), Performance tuning (72%), System monitoring (72%), Network management (68%)

54% of respondents work for companies with fewer than 500 employees;

36% work for companies with 501 or more employees.

12% of respondents support 1-10 users
19% support 11-50
12% support 51-100
23% support 101-500
35% support 501 or more users

On average, respondents personally administer about 30 servers.

Things you like most about the magazine:
"themed issues", "clear, concise, entertaining, educational", "it's written by techies for techies", "specific how-tos", "relevant articles for real-world applications"

Things you like the least:
"too much Linux", "too much Solaris", "too thin", "too many ads", "no time to read it"

Things you would change:
"more emphasis on open source tools", "more product reviews", "more integration articles", "more coverage of Ruby", "more source code", "include back-issue CD with subscription"

Regardless of whether your name was randomly selected to receive this year's survey, we value your comments about the magazine. Please send your likes, dislikes, suggestions, and (best of all) article proposals to me at: aankerholz@cmp.com.

Sincerely yours,

Amber Ankerholz
Editor in Chief