Re: [gentoo-dev] Seeking questions for a user survey

[Chris Gianelloni]

On Mon, 2008-01-14 at 22:53 +0000, likewhoa wrote:
> Which DE/WM would you prefer for the gentoo livecd instead of the one
> provided?
> > Kde
> > Xfce
> > Fluxbox
> > E16
> > Fvwm
> > Gnome
> > Other

Can I suggest that we not ask anything that we likely won't change?  I
have a strong feeling that KDE would win out here, but there's *NO WAY*
that we can fit KDE on a LiveCD with the other stuff.  When we were
planning 2007.1, we had decided to switch to Xfce, simply because of the
space savings.  Cramming a lot of useful stuff onto 700MB is *not* an
easy task.  Space is our biggest enemy here.  Were we to drop the LiveCD
fully in favor of the LiveDVD, then I could see this as (somewhat)
valid, as all of those Window Managers/Desktop Environments are already
shipped on the LiveDVD (except FVWM).  I'm not too interested in
people's opinions for the defaults on a media set that includes them all
and each is only a click or two away, though, as it doesn't really add
anything to what we provide.  If it weren't for the size constraints,
I'd love to know what people prefer on the CD, so I don't want anyone to
think that we don't care.  We do.  We just are limited by a hard size
limit than we cannot do anything about and have to act accordingly.

> Do they use grp packages?
> > Yes
> > No
> > What is grp?
> > Sometimes
> > Never

Definitely word this in a manner so people know what you're referring
to.  I would say something more along the lines of "Do you use the
Installer in Networkless mode or GRP packages when installing your
system?"

> Which livecd(s) do they prefer?
> > Gentoo livecd-2007.0
> > Sabayon livecd
> > Sysresccd
> > Knoppix
> > My own
> > Other

Be sure to list the Minimal CD and the Universal CD, as well as the
LiveCD, and also list the LiveDVD.  We'll have to relate this data to
the architecture used when we try to make anything useful out of it, but
it'll be more accurate, as I definitely want to know *which* Gentoo
media people are using.  I would also add something like "an older
Gentoo CD" to the mix.

> Do you think commercial packages should be part of the main tree?
> > Yes
> > No
> > Why not
> > Never!
> > in unofficial overlay
> > Dunno

Is this something that we really even want to ask?  I mean, if we're all
about trying to provide the best user experience, then binary packages
are almost a requirement, especially with binary packages that were
originally targeted at specific binary distributions.  I tend to see
this as one of those "religious" issues that is best left alone, like
emacs versus vi.

> How often should GWN be updated?
> > once a week
> > everyday
> > every month
> > every six months
> > what is GWN?

Again, you're asking something that I don't think that we should be
asking.  We couldn't get content even though we begged and pleaded for
it.  No offense meant to anyone, but I don't care if people want a daily
newsletter.  If we cannot get enough content, we cannot get enough
content.  No survey is going to change that, and asking a question like
this gives the impression that the user's opinion will make a
difference, when it likely will not.  I'd much rather not ask questions
that the users are going to feel like they were "ignored" than ask them
and not make any changes based on the answers.  Of course, if you're
volunteering to pick up the slack and write any necessary articles to
make it happen at the interval decided by our users, well, I completely
welcome it, then... ;]

> Do you like the Gentoo Linux Installer (GLI)?
> > Yes
> > No
> > Never heard of it

I'd like to see the answers to this one, but I have a feeling that
everybody has a love/hate relationship with this.  They either love it,
or they hate it.  I also tend to think that *many* people have an
opinion on the Installer without ever even using it.  As such, I don't
think that we'd get any usable results out of this, but it'll still be
fun to ask.

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering Strategic Lead
Games Developer