Wubi usage/opinion survey

Things have been a little quiet on the Wubi support front, since the 12.04 release (which resolved a lot of the usability bugs in Wubi.) So while twiddling my thumbs, I decided to find out how Wubi is perceived in the community.

Clearly there are many vocal 'anti-Wubi' voices, but how - I wondered - does the general community receive this product? I created a survey via surveymonkey.com and advertised it in The Community Cafe section on ubuntuforums.org. The idea was to target more seasoned Ubuntu community members.

Q. What sorts of users responded to the survey

77% of the respondents stated that they used Ubuntu more than Windows.
65% had experience with Wubi, either running it currently (9%) or having run it in the past (56%) 

Q. How many users responded

43 users completed the survey

Q. What was the opinion of Wubi

The following chart shows the opinion the respondents had of Wubi. e.g. 30% neither liked nor disliked Wubi.

The following chart shows the average opinion rating, broken down by category of user (on the chart a value of 1 = "Hate it", 2 = "Dislike it", 3 = "Neither Like nor Dislike it", 4 = "Like it"  and 5 = "Love it".)

The first column is the average for all respondents (3.28), and the rest are broken down by whether the respondent has ever used Wubi (or is currently using it). It shows that the opinion of Wubi is higher amongst those who have used Wubi (perhaps not surprisingly).

Q. Who would recommend Wubi

The following graph shows who would recommend Wubi to others to try out Ubuntu. The graph is broken down by category of user (first column is all respondents.) Again, not surprisingly, those who had used Wubi were more likely to recommend it.  Users who had no experience with Wubi were extremely reluctant to recommend it.

Conclusion
I was a little surprised to see the results. I expected to see more negativity to Wubi amongst non-Wubi users. But it should be noted that even though the average opinion rating wasn't bad in this category (2.47) only 7% would recommend Wubi to a new user to 'Try out Ubuntu'.

Contrast that with the average opinion rating of those that have used Wubi (3.54) or those that currently use Wubi (4.75) and you see a recommendation of 67% and 100% respectively. So these users clearly feel there is some value for introducing Ubuntu to newcomers.

Appendix
Here is a list of the questions on the survey. Questions with an asterix were mandatory.

1. *Do you run Ubuntu installed with Wubi? (Yes/No)
2.  If you answer No to Q1, have you ever installed Ubuntu using Wubi (Yes/No)
3.  If you used or are using Wubi, how long have you used it? (<1 day /<1week /<1month /<3months /<1year />1year)
4. Have you upgraded releases using Wubi? (Yes/Yes but it failed/No)
5. *Do you use Ubuntu more or less than Windows? (Less/Same/More)
6. *Do you ever force shutdown (power off) your computer if it hangs? (Never/ Sometimes/Frequently)
7.  If you are currently using Wubi, are you planning to move to a normal dual boot in the future, or stay with Wubi? (Reinstall/Migrate/Stay with Wubi/Not sure)
8. *Would you recommend Wubi to others to try out Ubuntu? (Yes/No)
9. *What's your overall opinion of Wubi (1-Hate it/2-Dislike it/3-Neither like nor dislike it/4-Like it/5-Love it)