Definitely not. I don't know whether Steven's article should be read as ironic, but it is filled with false or semi-true conclusions. Among them I found one especially funny:
Russia, however, is the country that has the most interest in Linux. It's followed by India -- out-sourcing anyone? -- and the Czech Republic. [..]
Steven, KDE is a Czech word "where" or so, you know? 
A few folks even remember this is mentioned in a KDE's Tip of the Day...
That said, we may be proud of "KDE" being mentioned in the national anthem of the Czech Republic:
Kde domov můj, kde domov můj?
Voda hu
Syndicate Blogs
Czech anthem
And do you know what does the anthem mean?
Kde domov muj = Where is my home (or KDE is my home [desktop]
Also, there is an initative called "Gnome domov muj", which has goal of promoting Gnome in Czechia. I'll let it as a reader exercise to guess what it means.
Have a nice day, your happy KDE user from Czechia.
Re: Is Google Trends a replacement for research?
Well,
I actually sent similar concerns to Steven by e-Mail and here's what he replied ( I take it that due to the fact that his e-mail just contains material that is considered informational he won't mind me quoting it here ... especially as he's making the same point in his article if you read closer ):
Torsten Rahn (KDE) wrote:
> While your article covers quite a lot of things that I agree with there are at
> least two things that need further explanation:
>
> - "KDE" means "Where" in czech language (and I bet it also does in
> slovakian).
> - "GNOME" is probably only so "popular" in Norway because as any visitor of
> that country will confirm "gnomes" and "trolls" are an essential part of
> norwegian's culture and myths.
>
Actually, I talked with Google about those points, and they told me that
those had been taken into consideration with their results.
Steven