2009 Linux Graphics Survey Results

While single display configurations may be most common among users, when it comes to those running multiple displays the most common method of setting up that display configuration was through using the Resize and Rotate (RandR) extension via either the xrandr utility or one of the graphical utilities that calls the RandR extension. The second most common way of configuring multiple displays was some other method -- namely NVIDIA's TwinView or ATI's BigDesktop, while using the Xinerama extension was the last common.

A new question for the survey this year was looking at the desktop resolution of the respondents. A pixel count of 1280 x 1024 or greater, but less than 1600 x 1200 was most popular, but a pixel count between 1600 x 1200 and less than 2560 x 1600 was the second most popular. Resolutions between 1280 x 1024 to 2560 x 1600 accounted for 75% of those participating in this survey, while resolutions less than 1280 x 1024 accounted for 20% and the remaining five percent were using 2560 x 1600 displays or greater.

Our next question shows 65% of the participating Linux users are using some sort of compositing window manager to provide "desktop effects" on their system. Of the total count, 37% of people are using Compiz, 22% are using KWin, and the others using a compositing window manager are using something else.