this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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Linux user survey! (pad.tchncs.de)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

To get an idea of this community, and to try the cool CryptPad Survey feature, I created a pretty big Linux usage survey!

The data is anonymized and the content encrypted on the server. I plan on publishing the results.

Have fun!

It works on hardened Firefox on a phone, but the experience is better on a PC.


live results

Notes

  1. I am very sorry but the question "it is okay that my above message gets published" cannot reasonably be respected, as the text is just dumped into a single block
  2. Lag caused some empty questions to appear, removed
  3. A question about disk encryption and "why do you use other OS" got mixed up
  4. i changed the wording of some questions or added more options, so there may be duplicate old answers or too little new ones. You can edit your submission and update your answers.
top 49 comments
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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Very biased survey in general. Should have more open-ended questions and less tailoring of questions based on previous answers.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

What is the difference between "Versioned" and "Stable"? And which one is NixOS?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

So I am going to try and give some feedback. I think I was a little harsh at first but that was because I found this to be upsetting.

I think it is inappropriate to ask about income. I know that might be a useful metric but I think it is touchy subject. Next, do not ask if someone feels represented. That is a vague question and needs to be rethought.

For the survey itself I think it is way to long. Try breaking it into smaller pieces that are spread apart. Surveys should be around 4 simple well worded questions. With the smaller surveys there is less data combined so it would be much harder to single out individuals. It also is a time saver.

For the "special brain" question you should instead ask about disabilities. This is a dangerous question as if a person hits do not answer that is a data metric. This question should also probably be in its own survey.

For gender I think that isn't all that big of an issue. However, the fact that only non males matter is problematic. You are singling out people who may not want to be singled out. This also applies to disabilities or any trait that could put them be used against them.

I really think you should break these surveys down. Also I would have a look at the surveys by the Linux Experiment. He did a good job of doing them in a way that isn't discriminatory. He also didn't ask for information such as disabilities.

Lastly, you should offer a other button with a custom response. Sometimes we do not fit in boxes.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Thanks, I will read your reply.

it would be much harder to single out individuals.

It is all anonymous, I dont get any individually sent data. Which is pretty problematic as it would be interesting to combine certain types of people, traits, behaviors etc.

For example "people using Ubuntu back then and staying with it tend to use X11" or whatever.

This question should also probably be in its own survey.

Yes probably, multiple smaller ones make way more sense.

This also applies to disabilities or any trait that could put them be used against them.

As the ratio is so extreme, I disagree that focussing on just non-male people is wrong.

It is a scope though, and you cannot make a fair and representative survey.

But I agree that other disabilities could have been added.

You are welcome to join, I and maybe a few more people plan on doing more, smaller surveys in the future.

have a look at the surveys by the Linux Experiment.

Yes but I didnt find it that interesting. We can argue about discrimination, but in an anonymous survey it is not problematic to ask for "sensitive" info and tons of people gave their answer there.

These just interested me, and they are more personal than Nicks for sure.

Lastly, you should offer a other button with a custom response.

Yeah for sure. I want to make a followup especially on the "other" boxes that got tons of checks.

But CryptPad seems to not have that feature.

As a test of this feature I think it is interesting. I will try Limesurvey and Nextcloud forms the next time.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Why does "Why did you switch from*" have different options for each distro? Thought it was funny only NixOS had "toxic people" option. Guessing due to recent drama.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I see someone trying out the options ;)

Yes for sure not the perfectly scientific method, but I used things that are known. Like Snaps and Ads for Ubuntu, too old packages for Debian, and "I dont know really why to use it" for OpenSUSE lol

And yes, NixOS to my knowledge has a huge governance issue.

I will do another survey about exact distros, and could have used specific ones here too but didnt want to for now.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

when we can we expect to get results?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

This is a first run, doing an overhaul currently (no idea if this breaks things).

Then will post to other lemmy forums and general matrix discussions.

Then in 2 weeks or so the results

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

62 questions. I guess I am lazy.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I kinda escalated but that form feature is supercool, those are not really 62, they expand depending on what you select.

For example if you use GNOME and used KDE before, it asks for reasons.

Thats probably a bug

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Duo to the way Crytopad works please remember to add a "Don't want to say" answer to questions with radio buttons, since you cannot deselect them meaning you can't back out of questions you don't want to answer. Hit me up if you wanna do that survey again. I'll gladly help you with structuring and formatting

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Longer than expected, but it reminded me of some things I haven't thought of in a while.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (5 children)

What is your gender?

What is your / your families income?

Do you have a special brain?

Yeah this survey is super inappropriate and offensive. Please do not ask such personal questions.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

The way I thought of that, as someone with a special brain (autism) is that rather than just knowing things like experience and what they use/like/dislike/etcetera, it's also good to know a breakdown of what groups of people are using Linux/answered the survey. At least there was an "I'd rather not say" kind of option in case you don't wanna give up that information.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah this survey is super inappropriate and offensive. Please do not ask such personal questions.

Did you notice that more inappropriate questions appear and disappear based on your previous answers?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I didn't. Thanks for bring that to my attention

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think these questions may be, depending on the context, but I'm willing to assume that these are not intended to be. If they come from a legitimate wish to better understand the community without prejudice, then these questions are acceptable to me. It's also a standalone poll, self reported and with no tie to any identity.

But maybe I'm unique in thinking that these questions may have circumstances in which they are acceptable?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Maybe it is a cultural thing. For me personally these questions are offensive.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What culture are you from? Apologies if this is offensive to ask

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Do you not take offense when someone starts asking for deeply personal information? Not even my know how much I make

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Every of these questions is optional and has a "not saying anything" answer.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

That doesn't make it any less insulting and hurtful. You are asking for deeply personal data.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The last one is just stupid, to be honest. But the rest are relevant for statistics sake.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No I am honestly curious as I have the feeling there are tons of people with ADHD and Autism in the Linux community, myself included.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

If it was acessability survey it would be OK, but this is a general one.

I get where you are coming from, unlike this one in a enterprise and education context I think anyone should refrain from asking something that personal unless it's strictly necessary.

Waiting for the results, keep it up!!!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Why not be brave and ask questions? People fill them out voluntarily and anonymously, no one is harmed

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Why can not all those be true?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Some answers are phrased so that they all make sense, I am more interested in the most important reasons.

Just everyone selecting everything is not that useful.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Assumed that much, maybe phrase as the 3 most relevant to one?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I put a note in the top text

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Dope, great work. are you going to edit this post or make a new one for the tesults?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Does CryptoPad not support a ranked-choice voting? You get better information than with approval voting.

Also, are you keeping the results from each iteration, or will there be a final version that us early repliers should return to?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

You can edit your votes as I made some fixes. I decided against a second version.

And yes I forgot the ranked voting, this would make a hell lot of sense.

I will do a second one

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I dont know I think so? There is a "numbered list" option

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I feel that the questions around community and integration should not depend on the gender selection in question 2, imo.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The sad reality as that tech is still not terribly diverse. It is better than it was but still lacking.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm not disagreeing, but the poll prevents reporting a bad community experience of you select "male" as gender.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes true. It was dependent in the gender, because I didnt yet try to evaluate the results so having these answers just for non male people would give more exact results

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

No this is "focusing on minorities".

As you can see like 95% are male, and that is important.

Also how can something be discriminating if you dont even get anything. You are free to post anything here or use other methods.

This is like the most subjectively picked survey on earth as it has tons of specific questions which can only be done with A a huge list of questions or B a subjective scope.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Discrimination can be against anyone. It doesn't matter who, what or why. You can't just single out people like that.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I can't complete the survey because of the questions.

Some questions are single choice but should allow for multiple, like 29.
Some questions are too broad, like question 17, "why?".

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I believe 17 is why you use disk encryption, as that was the question above for me

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Sorry, wrong formatting. Will edit that.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Didn't realize you could edit it, it'd be nice if there were options for using your computer for creative work like 3D modeling or digital art :)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago