Respondents in the mountain states -- where self-employed technologists are proportionately rare -- were the most optimistic, regionally.

The Northwest also has a high percentage of self-employed tech professionals: They may be speaking from sad experience.

Most agree the present environment makes it harder to succeed with self-employment.

Just about everyone wants to strike out on their own sometime. But they won't do it for the money -- what they're looking for is more control over their professional lives.

In fact, most told us that companies are very reluctant to allow frequent telecommuters to manage others -- 29 percent cited that as the single biggest negative impact that telecommuting had on career advancement. Many also said that telecommuting seems to slow down raises and bonuses.

Seventy-two percent said they'd use their ex-supervisor as a reference in finding a new job,