[RFC (take 4)] Git User's Survey 2007

It's been more than a year since last Git User's Survey. It would be interesting to find what changed since then. Therefore the idea to have another survey.

First there is a question about the form of survey. Should we use web based survey, as the survey before (http://www.survey.net.nz), sending emails with link to this survey, or perhaps do email based survey, with email Reply-To: address put for this survey alone?

Second, what questions should be put in the survey, and in the case of single choice and multiple choice questions what possible answers should be? Below are slightly extended questions from the last survey. Please comment on it.

Third, where to send survey to? I was thinking about git mailing list, LKML, and mailing list for git projects found on GitProjects page on GIT wiki. Do you want to add some address? Or should info about GIT User's Survey 2007 be sent also to one of on-line magazines like LinuxToday, or asked to put on some blog?

Those lists include:
  wine-users, xmms2-devel, xcb (freedesktop), cairo, u-boot-users,
  git mailing list, lklm (emails thanks to Paolo Ciarrocchi)
  LWN, NewsForge, Slashdot, OSNews,

Those lists might include:
  CRUX Linux, Source Mage Linux, DirectFB, GNU LilyPond, OLPC,
  Thousands Parsec, X.Org, Mesa3D, Beryl -> Compiz Fusion,

Other possibilities:
  OpenOffice.org, Mozilla (MozillaZine), SeaMonkey,
  KDE (dot.kde.net), GNOME, Blue GNU

Hmmm... the list of questions got a bit long: 65 questions so far (some of those are optional and depend on answers to other question). Isn't it too much?

References:
  http://marc.info/?l=git&m=115116592330648&w=2
  http://marc.info/?l=git&m=115364303813936&w=2
  http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitSurvey

---- Hi all,

We would like to ask you a few questions about your use of the GIT version control system. This survey is mainly to understand who is using GIT, how and why.

The results will be published to the GIT wiki and discussed on the git mailing list.

We'll close the survey in three weeks starting from today, <date>.

Please devote a few minutes of your time to fill this simple questionnaire, it will help a lot the git community to understand your needs, what you like of git, and of course what you don't like of it.

The survey can be found here:
  http://www.survey.net.nz/survey.php? <number>

---- About you

    1. What country are you in?
    2. What is your preferred non-programming language?
    3. How old are you?
    4. Which programming languages you are proficient with?
       (The choices include programming languages used by git)
       (zero or more: multiple choice)
    -  C, shell, Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk

Getting started with GIT

    1. How did you hear about GIT?
    2. Did you find GIT easy to learn?
    -  very easy/easy/reasonably/hard/very hard
    3. What helped you most in learning to use it?
    4. What did you find hardest?
    5. When did you start using git? From which version?
    *  (date, or version, or both)

Other SCMs

    1. What other SCM did you use?
    2. What other SCM do you use currently?
    3. What other SCM do you use as a main SCM for your project
       instead of git, if any? 
    4. Why did you choose this SCM?
    *  example: better MS Windows support
    5. What would you require from git to enable you to change,
       if you use other SCM for your project?
    6. Did you import your repository from foreign SCM?
    7. What tool did you use for import?
    8. Do your git repository interact with other SCM?
    9. What tool did/do you use?

How you use GIT

    1. Do you use GIT for work, unpaid projects, or both?
       work/unpaid projects/both/none(*)
       (*)I use git to interact with some project I'm interested in
    2. How do you obtain GIT?  Source tarball, binary package, or
       pull the main repository?
    -  binary package/source tarball/pull from main repository
    3. What hardware platforms do you use GIT on?
    *  examples: i386, x86_64, ARM, PowerPC, Alpha, g5, ...
    4. What OS (please include the version) do you use GIT on?
    *  examples: Linux, MS Windows (Cygwin/MinGW/gitbox), 
       IRIX, HP-UX, Solaris, FreeBSD, ...
       (please give kernel version and distribution for Linux)
    5. What projects do you track (or download) using GIT
       (or git web interface)?   
    6. How many people do you collaborate with using GIT?
    7. How big are the repositories that you work on? (e.g. how many
       files, how much disk space, how deep is the history?)
    *  number of files in repository: "git ls-tree -r HEAD | wc -l"
    *  largest file under version control
    *  pack size of freshly cloned fully packed repository
    *  number of commits in straight line, number of commits in branch
       ("git rev-list --first-parent HEAD | wc -l", 
        "git rev-list HEAD | wc -l")
    8. How many different projects do you manage using GIT?
    9. Which porcelains do you use?
       (zero or more: multiple choice)
    -  core-git, cogito (deprecated), StGIT, guilt, pg (deprecated),
       my own scripts, other
   10. Which git GUI do you use
       (zero or more: multiple choice)
    -  gitk, git-gui, qgit, gitview, giggle, tig, instaweb,
       (h)gct, qct, KGit, git.el, other
   11. Which (main) git web interface do you use for your projects?
    -  gitweb/cgit/wit (Ruby)/git-php/other
   12. How do you publish/propagate your changes?
       (zero or more: multiple choice)
    -  push, pull request, format-patch + email, bundle, other
   13. Does git.git repository include code produced by you?
    -  yes/no

Internationalization

    1. Is translating GIT required for wider adoption?
    -  yes/no/somewhat
    2. What do you need translated?
    *  examples: git-gui, qgit, git messages, manpages,
       user's manual
    3. For what language do you need translation for?

What you think of GIT

    1. Overall, how happy are you with GIT?
    -  unhappy/not so happy/happy/very happy/completely ecstatic
    2. How does GIT compare to other SCM tools you have used?
    -  worse/equal (or comparable)/better
    3. What do you like about using GIT?
    4. What would you most like to see improved about GIT?
       (features, bugs, plug-ins, documentation, ...)
    5. If you want to see GIT more widely used, what do you
       think we could do to make this happen?

Changes in GIT (since year ago, or since you started using it)

    1. Did you participate in previous Git User's Survey?
    -  yes/no
    2. What improvements you wanted got implemented?
    3. What improvements you wanted didn't get implemented?
    4. How do you compare current version iwth version from year ago?
    -  current version is: better/worse/no changes
    5. Which of the new features do you use?
       (zero or more: multiple choice)
    -  git-gui, bundle, eol conversion, gitattributes,
       submodules, worktree, release notes, user's manual,
       reflog, stash, shallow clone, detached HEAD, fast-import,
       mergetool, interactive rebase, commit template, blame improvements,
       other (not mentioned here)
    6. If you selected "other", what are those features?

Documentation

    1. Do you use the GIT wiki?
    -  yes/no
    2. Do you find GIT wiki useful?
    -  yes/no/somewhat
    3. Do you contribute to GIT wiki?
    -  yes/no/only corrections or spam removal
    4. Do you find GIT's on-line help (homepage, documentation) useful?
    -  yes/no/somewhat
    5. Do you find help distributed with GIT useful
       (manpages, manual, tutorial, HOWTO, release notes)?
    -  yes/no/somewhat
    6. Do you contribute to GIT documentation?
    -  yes/no
    7. What could be improved on the GIT homepage?
    8. What topics would you like to have on GIT wiki?
    9. What could be improved in GIT documentation?

Getting help, staying in touch

    1. Have you tried to get GIT help from other people?
    -  yes/no
    2. If yes, did you get these problems resolved quickly
       and to your liking?
    -  yes/no
    3. Would commerical (paid) support from a support vendor
       be of interest to you/your organization?
    4. Do you subscribe to the mailing list?
    -  yes/no
    5. Do you read the mailing list? What method do you use?
    -  subscribed/news interface/RSS interface/archives/
       /post + reply-to request/digests/I don't read it
    6. If yes, do you find it useful?
    -  yes/no (optional)
    7. Do you find traffic levels on GIT mailing list OK.
    -  yes/no? (optional)
    8. Do you use the IRC channel (#git on irc.freenode.net)?
    -  yes/no
    9. If yes, do you find IRC channel useful?
    -  yes/no (optional)
   10. Did you have problems getting GIT help on mailing list or
       on IRC channel? What were it? What could be improved?

Open forum

    1. What other comments or suggestions do you have that are not
       covered by the questions above?