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And now, sharpen your virtual pencils and let’s begin.
(Oh, and please don’t visit the answers page until you’re through with your quiz.)
1) Which company is the No. 1 server vendor in terms of market share and sales?
A) IBM
B) HP
C) Sun
D) Dell
E) Fast Eddie’s Server Hut
2) Sales in the PC industry are pretty much flat, right?
A) Yes. Sales are strong but the growth ain’t what it used to be.
B) PC sales are expected to grow by a respectable 3-5 percent this year.
C) PC sales are robust, with a forecast of double digit growth.
D) Surprising all analysts, PC sales are actually trending down.
3) What’s the average salary for U.S. tech workers?
1) $56,400
2) $73,308
3) $86, 515
4) Whatever Bill Gates makes, divided by a million.
4) When it comes to broadband speeds, the U.S. is the top of the heap, right?
A) Yup, we rock at top speed!
B) Well, we’re near the top – right behind those speed demons the Canadians.
C) The U.S. average broadband speed lags almost every industrialized nation.
D) Dude, what’s ‘broadband’?
5) IBM employed about 3,000 people in India in 2002. What’s the number today?
A) 14,000
B) 38,000
C) 53,000
D) 78,000
6) Instant messaging is on the rise as an enterprise communication tool. By what year is IM projected to be the de facto communication tool among 95 percent of employees?
A) 2009
B) 2013
C) 2017
D) As soon as today’s 15-year-olds take over, all forms of communication except IM will be banned. Anyone who writes a complete sentence will be summarily fired.
7) Google accounts for what percentage of U.S.-based Internet searches?
A) 54.9 percent
B) 62.7 percent
C) 81.4 percent
D) All of them. Google rules the world. All hail our Google overlord.
8) The virtualization services market is, by all accounts, enjoying major growth. Valued at $5.5 billion in 2006, it is expected to grow how large by 2011?
A) $8.1 billion
B) $11.7 billion
C) $14 billion
D) It’s actually expected to shrink by 2011
E) It’s all to virtual to really know
9) Businesses and consumers worldwide will spend how much on software over the next four years?
A) $890 million
B) $34 billion
C) $350 billion
D) $1.2 trillion
10) Software piracy remains commonplace, as always. What percentage of software installed on PCs worldwide in 2006 was obtained illegally?
A) 35 percent
B) 61 percent
C) 80 percent
D) More than anyone can count
11) What medium do consumers say is the “’most essential,” TV or the Internet?
A) The Internet, by a narrow margin
B) TV, by a large margin
C) The Internet is a clear winner
D) Neither. Consumers say the printed newspaper is the “most essential” medium
12) Computer and network security is a notoriously difficult challenge for companies, as black hatters strive to penetrate the firewall. But employees also pose a major risk, due to a number of careless security practices. What percentage of security blunders are attributable to employees?
A) More than 10 percent
B) Almost a quarter
C) Almost half
D) I’d like to research that, but someone lifted my laptop
13) The storage software market is robust, with years of healthy annual growth. Among the top software storage vendors, which one saw the biggest revenue jump from 2006 Q1 to 2007 Q1?
A) EMC
B) Symantec
C) Network Appliance
D) IBM
14) Research firm IDC reports that the size of the Linux market ecosystem, based on servers and software, is worth $18 billion. What does IDC expect the Linux market to be worth in 2010?
A) $27 billion
B) $40 billion
C) $56 billion
D) $81 billion
15) Linux creator Linus Torvalds recently commented on the newly released GPLv3, a document that is expected to have far-reaching implications for open source’s future in business. In this post to the Linux kernel mailing list, how did Torvalds describe GPLv3?
A) “GPLv3 is a major step forward, one that I hope *all* developers will adopt.”
B) “So I claim that for *me* the right choice is GPLv2 (or something similar). I think the GPLv3 is overreaching.”
C) “Except for a few changes, I think the development community is ready to move forward with GPLv3.”
1) Which company is the No. 1 server vendor in terms of market share and sales?
Okay, it’s a trick question. As of Q1 2007, research firm IDC put HP in the lead, with 29.2 percent market share to IBM’s 28.9 percent; however, research firm Gartner put IBM in the lead, with a 29.8 market share to HP’s 28.2 percent. In short, it’s a close horse race. Oh, and “Fast Eddie’s Server Hut,” because it’s a fictional company, doesn’t release figures. More information.
2) Sales in the PC industry are pretty much flat, right?
PC sales will grow by 11.1 percent in 2007, for a total of 257.1 units, according to Gartner. Emerging markets and continued domestic strength are the drivers. Experts claim that Vista is having minimal effect.
More information.
3) What’s the average salary for U.S. tech workers?
As of 2006, the average salary was $73, 308, according to Dice. As for how much Bill Gates makes, that’s hard to say. With a net worth estimated (and estimates vary wildly) at $46 billion, even if he kept it in a passbook savings account earning 2 percent, he’d make $920 million a year, or about $2.5 million a day.
4) When it comes to broadband speeds, the U.S. is the top of the heap, right?
The average U.S. broadband speed, according to the Communications Workers of America, is 1.9 mbps. That’s far behind winner Japan, 61 mbps; South Korea, 45 mbps; Sweden, 18 mbps, and those speed demons the Canadians, at 7.6 mbps. Some say this is proof that we need a national broadband policy.
More information.
5) IBM employed about 3,000 people in India in 2002. What’s the number today?
IBM employs about 53,000 people in India as of 2007. Its total U.S.-based work force is 127,000, a slightly lower number than in 2002. More information.
6) Instant messaging is on the rise as an enterprise communication tool. By what year is IM projected to be the de facto communication tool among 95 percent of employees?
By 2017, according to Gartner analyst David Smith.
More information.
7) Google accounts for what percentage of U.S.-based Internet searches?
Google accounted for 62.7 percent of U.S. searches, as of June 2007, according to Compete, a Web measuring company. More information.
8) The virtualization services market is, by all accounts, enjoying major growth. Valued at $5.5 billion in 2006, it is expected to grow how large by 2011?
IDC expects the virtualization market to grow to $11.7 billion by 2011.
9) Businesses and consumers worldwide will spend how much on software over the next four years?
Businesses and consumers worldwide are expected to spend $350 billion on software over the next four years, according to IDC.
10) Software piracy remains commonplace, as always. What percentage of software installed on PCs worldwide in 2006 was obtained illegally?
Thirty five percent of software worldwide has been obtained illegally, based on IDC estimates. (The percentage varies by region, with an estimated 22 percent pirated in North America, in contrast to 66 percent in Latin America.)
11) What medium do consumers say is the “’most essential,” TV or the Internet?
By a narrow margin, 36 to 33 percent, respondents say the TV is the most essential medium. However, if you look at just the 12-44 year old age group, the Internet is called the most essential. More information.
12) Computer and network security is a notoriously difficult challenge for companies, as black hatters strive to penetrate the firewall. But employees also pose a major risk, due to a number of careless security practices. What percentage of security blunders are attributable to employees?
“As much as half of all security issues may be the result of employees’ unintended data loss,” says McAfee executive Vimal Solanki. More information.
13) The storage software market is robust, with years of healthy annual growth. Among the top software storage vendors, which one saw the biggest revenue jump from 2006 Q1 to 2007 Q1?
Although Network Appliance is in fourth place in terms of market share (at 10 percent) it saw the largest year over year revenue jump in 2007 Q1, at 49.4 percent. More information.
14) Research firm IDC reports that the size of the Linux market ecosystem, based on servers and software, is worth $18 billion. What does IDC expect the Linux market to be worth in 2010?
IDC forecasts that the Linux market will be valued at $40 billion by 2010. Interestingly, IDC’s Al Gillen finds that, as of 2007, there are an equal number of paid Linux deployments as free ones. More information.
15) Linux creator Linus Torvalds recently commented on the newly released GPLv3, a document that is expected to have far-reaching implications for open source’s future in business. In this post to the Linux kernel mailing list, how did Torvalds describe GPLv3?
Torvalds’ quote is here:
“So I claim that for *me* the right choice is GPLv2 (or something similar). I think the GPLv3 is overreaching.”
