Calls and surveys – The FreeBSD Project and The FreeBSD Foundation

[Cath O'Deray]

{link removed}

Closing soon:

{link removed}

… we want to hear from you by January 8, …

Please refrain from revealing the questions until after the closing date. Thanks.

 

[mer]

grahamperrin thanks for posting this

 

[Cath O'Deray]

mer you're welcome. Originally:

2024 FreeBSD Community Survey is Here

Calling all members of the FreeBSD Community! The FreeBSD Core Team and the FreeBSD Foundation invite you to complete the 2024 FreeBSD Community Survey. The purpose of this survey is to collect quantitative data from the public in order to help guide the Project’s priorities and efforts. Your...

forums.freebsd.org

– mid-December, so I assume that most people have already responded. I thought of a reminder after finding the closing date in Mastodon (thanks to emaste@ there).

 

[T-Aoki]

Done.

 

[Cath O'Deray]

The survey remained open long beyond 8th January

---

Please refrain from revealing the questions until after the closing date. Thanks.

Here we go in no particular order …​

17th December, privately {link removed}:

… the one statement that made no sense (to me):

"Performance is a major security consideration for server workloads"

AFAIK, performance is simply not a security consideration in any situation, so I disagreed, with an assumption that it's a trick question.

No need to reply, just FYI.

In retrospect, maybe I'm revealing my total ignorance of server workload situations that involve FreeBSD

Part of question 19, pictured on the same date:

{link removed}

27th December, privately {link removed}:

… public/group thought around any one question is likely to skew whatever response an individual gives.

(I quite enjoyed being unprepared for some questions, when I took the survey. The surprise forced me to think in a different way, a nice way.) …

 

[fraxamo]

Hi, does anybody know when the results from the 2024 FreeBSD Community Survey will be published?

 

[Cath O'Deray]

I don't imagine a public summary. The purpose was to collect quantitative data from the public in order to help guide the Project’s priorities and efforts.

For updates, as usual, look to:

• {link removed}
• {link removed}.

From one of this week's updates:

… greater transparency within our annual budget. Coming in March, you’ll be able to get a better sense of how your support is being used to improve FreeBSD.

You’ll hear more about our other initiatives in the coming weeks. Until then, here’s a sneak peek at what we’re planning for the coming year.

• Improving the Desktop and Developer Experience: We are dedicated to improving the user interface and developer tools to make FreeBSD even more accessible and user-friendly.
• Implementing key features and technologies: We’re ensuring FreeBSD stands out as a compelling choice for your use cases and emerging markets.
• Strengthening Partnerships: Building on the success of our collaborations in 2023, we are looking to enhance existing partnerships while establishing new ones to assist companies better using FreeBSD
• Expanding FreeBSD Visibility: Increasing awareness is key this year. Our plan is to accomplish that by creating more content highlighting the benefits and features of FreeBSD, working with companies to share success stories and use cases, and increasing media outreach.

…

 

[fraxamo]

I don't imagine a public summary.

Thanks for responding. I would expect one. What benefit is there for the wider community if only the FreeBSD Foundation gets to see the survey results? The least I would expect from a survey like this is confirmation of my own thoughts and ideas about the project. However, even better, would be the possibility of learning something new or being inspired by other FreeBSD users more experienced than me. Any good ideas or thoughts captured in the survey are a powerful multiplier in a small project that tries to punch above it's weight when it comes to manpower and resources. We should take advantage of that wherever possible. So, in my opinion it would feel wrong if the FreeBSD Foundation took this information and just locked it away without sharing it. But it's early days, they may publish something in the next Quarterly Status Report.

 

[monwarez]

I don't imagine a public summary. The purpose was to collect quantitative data from the public in order to help guide the Project’s priorities and efforts.

For updates, as usual, look to:

• Latest Updates | FreeBSD Foundation
• FreeBSD Status Reports | The FreeBSD Project.

From one of this week's updates:

They did it for 2019, the summary were presented during BSDCan.

https://wiki.freebsd.org/DevSummit/201905?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=core.10+BSDCan+Status+Update.pdf

 

[Cath O'Deray]

I changed the title of this topic:

• from 2024 FreeBSD Community Survey
• to Calls and surveys – The FreeBSD Project and The FreeBSD Foundation.

2016​

2016-06-02: 2016 FreeBSD Community Survey

2016-07-06: FreeBSD Community Survey | The FreeBSD Forums

… I wrote to the Foundation to ask whether a summary of results will be published.

From <{link removed}>:

FreeBSD Community Engagement

We launched our first Community Survey. The purpose was to get input from the community on why they use FreeBSD, what they'd like to see the Foundation support, and other input to help us determine our direction and how we should support the Project.

Anne Dickison, our Marketing Director, has been overseeing the efforts to rewrite the Project's Code of Conduct to help make this a safe, inclusive, and welcoming community.

2019​

2019-04-27: 2019 FreeBSD Community Survey | The FreeBSD Forums

2019-04-28: page one of the community survey (questions 1–10) in the Wayback Machine

… the summary …

Thanks! For convenience, and accessibility, the six points from page 7 of 51 of the PDF (of the update from Core.10):

• Lots of opinions
• Short on data
• Explicit desire to:
  • not bikeshed in private
  • have a successful core term with concrete results, backed by data
• Straw poll at EuroBSD Dev Summit regarding willingness to participate in a survey.
  • 50 attendees
  • “Who wouldn’t participate in a survey?” 2 hands went up
• Early results confirm some of our assumptions
• Learned new things, too early to draw conclusions before full analysis

Emphatically: too early, because the presentation by Core.10 was made only two days after the survey the community survey closed.

From <{link removed}>:

The annual developer survey closed on 2019-04-02. Of the 397 developers, 243 took the survey with an average completion time of 12 minutes. The public survey closed on 2019-05-13. It was taken by 3637 users and had a 79% completion rate. A presentation of the survey results took place at BSDCan 2019.

2020​

<{link removed}>:

2 June: The FreeBSD 2020 Community Survey … closes … on June 16th

From <{link removed}>:

The second annual community survey closed on 2020-06-16. … last year's survey results helped initiate the Project's conversion to Git. … The results will be released soon. …

2020-07-01: announcement of the Eleventh FreeBSD Core Team.

From FreeBSD Core Team 10 in Review | FreeBSD Foundation (2020-07-27):

• … initiated annual community surveys to support data-driven decision making …

– and:

… Echoing comments of several other members, Allan Jude notes “the annual user survey, now in its second round, has been very useful to discover how people are using FreeBSD. For instance, it helps us answer long-debated questions like ‘do people actually want more frequent releases?’”

The Core.10 Secretary, Joseph Mingrone adds “the community and developer surveys were a big step towards becoming more data-driven and transparent.” For purposes of focusing on the small number of bigger projects to undertake, Jeff Roberson found that the survey revealed “some nearly universal common themes. There was lots of common ground.” …

2021​

2021-03-17: tweet from The FreeBSD Foundation

Join members of @freebsdcore for the next Town Hall, today (March 17) at 18:00 UTC/11:00am PDT. The agenda includes insights from last year's #FreeBSD Community Survey and a discussion on the next one. https://live.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/officehours/

2021-11-23: Call for Foundation-supported Project Ideas | The FreeBSD Forums from jrm@.

<{link removed}>

2022​

2022-06-18: announcement of the Twelfth FreeBSD Core Team.

2023​

There was no newsflash, and so:

• the invitation to participate in the 2024 survey, from FreeBSD Core Team and the FreeBSD Foundation, did not appear at the home page of the FreeBSD Project

– the survey was promoted elsewhere.

2023-12-16: FreeBSD 2024 Community Survey preamble in the Wayback Machine {link removed}

2024​

… if only the FreeBSD Foundation gets to see the survey results? …

The survey was private.

I trust that responses were seen by no-one other than:

• core.12 (nine people ({link removed}))
• staff (thirteen people) and the Board of Directors (six) of The FreeBSD Foundation ({link removed})

– a total of twenty-eight twenty-five people.

 

[PMc]

The survey was private.

I trust that responses were seen by no-one other than:

• core.12 (nine people (captured))
• staff (thirteen people) and the Board of Directors (six) of The FreeBSD Foundation (captured)

– a total of twenty-eight people.

Thanks for the summary.

Why do we need an elitist group that locks themselves up in an ivory tower being busy with applauding to themselves?
Especially while we have an OS where now not only I say it is not really useable?

I think we have similar groups already. They're called governements (and my scientists fail to find a systemic difference between a government and organized crime).

What we have here is at best a showcase on how such pathologic structures develop.

 

[fraxamo]

The survey was private.

Looking at the original invitation to take the survey on the FreeBSD Foundation website here, it's not obvious from the text that the results were going to be kept private. If I had known that I would never have taken part as it doesn't feel in the spirit of open source and free software. However, I'm still hopeful that the results will be published.

 

[cmoerz]

I share your desire to know more about the survey results. I don't know whether there are any plans to release anything - if so, I assume this to be core's responsibility, because they are the ones setting the pace and direction for the project. BSDCan is coming up in May, obviously this would be a good opportunity. Still, it's core's decision what to do with the results.

Also, it is quite some work to properly clean up and make presentable raw survey data - there's a difference between gaining some insights and compiling the results into something that's interesting and inviting even beyond the existing members of the FreeBSD community. I expect this factors into the scope of whatever might get released.

At the end of the day, that's the governance of the project as it was set up many years ago. We as community are free to voice any concerns we have to core, I would like to point out. The core members are all publicly listed with user ident on the FreeBSD web page - so I'd call that a point for transparency and openness.

The FreeBSD Project

FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms.

www.freebsd.org

 

[fraxamo]

Still, it's core's decision what to do with the results.

You may be right, but the survey was organised by the FF, not Core, so it's possible that Core do not get to decide what to do with the results.

Also, it is quite some work to properly clean up and make presentable raw survey data - there's a difference between gaining some insights and compiling the results into something that's interesting and inviting

It's easy to make the results immediately presentable if you organise the survey correctly in advance. Questions should not be completely open-ended but instead should have a checkbox, drop-down or radio button style interface so that the user can only specify a pre-prepared answer. Answering 'Other' is a valid option and allows the user to enter free-form text if required. The free-form text can be ignored for the published results of the survey but accessed if someone wants to drill down for more information.

The core members are all publicly listed with user ident on the FreeBSD web page - so I'd call that a point for transparency and openness.

True, but as noted above I'm not sure that Core hold any sway over whether the results get published or not, they might just get to look at the results.

 

[Cath O'Deray]

… quite some work to properly clean up and make presentable raw survey data …

?

… if you organise the survey correctly in advance.

It was well-organised. At the end of the survey, I felt that it was the best organised, to date.

… Questions should not be completely open-ended but instead should have a checkbox, drop-down or radio button style interface so that the user can only specify a pre-prepared answer.

IIRC most questions did so.

(Did you complete the survey?)

Answering 'Other' is a valid option and allows the user to enter free-form text if required.

I added free-form text for at least one radio button answer, where the button was for the lowest possible rating.

The free-form text can be ignored for the published results of the survey

It certainly can …

but accessed if someone wants to drill down for more information. …

… it most certainly can not. If anyone is to publish my private responses, it should be me; no-one else has the right.

So. What should the public see?

Presenting great dissatisfaction in one area, with no explanation, would raise more questions than it answers. Then wild, impatient conjecture, and so on …

 

[Cath O'Deray]

ivory tower

In a parallel universe (quoting from a recent Foundation post): "commitment to greater transparency" …

 

[PMc]

In a parallel universe (quoting from a recent Foundation post): "commitment to greater transparency" …

Just answer the question.

Or tell me when does the shit get repaired.

 

[Cath O'Deray]

… 2021-03-17: tweet from The FreeBSD Foundation {link removed} … agenda includes insights from last year's #FreeBSD Community Survey and a discussion on the next one.

<{link removed}> there's no link to a recording on or after that date, neither can I find it in the channel on YouTube.

A long shot: bofh@ (then Core Team Secretary) or allanjude@, can you recall anything from the meeting that was survey-related?

(I'll ping them elsewhere. A ping and responses at {link removed}.)

 

[Cath O'Deray]

when does the shit get repaired.

Was that amongst your free-form responses to the 2024 survey?

 

[fraxamo]

(Did you complete the survey?)

Hi Graham,

Thanks for responding. I did complete the survey, which is why I was interested in seeing the results. I also think that what I wrote has unintentionally been taken out of context, which is my fault as the way that I wrote it seems to have left a lot open to interpretation. Apologies! Let me try and repair that below.

When I described how to create a survey that could be organised correctly in advance I wasn't talking about the FF survey as such, just surveys in general. However, if you think that this survey was well organised (and I don't remember it not being well organised) then I see no reason why the results cannot be published quickly and easily. The person that I was responding to on this point seemed to think that might be a mitigating factor. I was just making the point that creating an easily publishable set of survey results wasn't that difficult.

When I wrote 'but accessed if someone wants to drill down for more information' I was actually imagining an FF member doing that, not a member of the public, but didn't make that clear. I expect that members of the public should be able to see the aggregated responses to the radio-button/checkbox-type questions but not the free-form text. However, I see no reason for people not to be able to see the free-form text if survey takers are aware up front that their text will be published (which isn't the case with this survey), but understand that it's a difficult task to collate all the text into something coherent. The free-form text is probably the most interesting part of the survey for others to read. It could also be anonymised to protect survey takers identities. Or survey takers could be asked whether they agree to have their answers published.

Hope that clears up any misunderstanding. Anyway, I think I'll leave it here and wait to see what happens.

Have a nice evening!

 

[Cath O'Deray]

Thanks,

… surveys in general …

I did misinterpret your comments as relating to the 2024 FreeBSD Community Survey in particular. Sorry!

… anonymised …

I can't recall exactly what I wrote, wherever there was free-form, but with some things it's difficult to anonymise without losing (or changing) the originally intended meaning.

---

I added 2016 to the list above. Re: my email to the Foundation, I vaguely recall two follow-ups, maybe on Twitter, with an intention to publish something. Nothing materialised, I probably didn't chase more than once (I was happy enough without a summary).

Also added: more about 2019. Now I see, the presentation at BSDCan related to three surveys – one of which was from 2016, another was developers-only.

Whilst seeking 2016 needles in the private haystack that is now X (probably a waste of time, since I deleted my Twitter account), I stumbled across a 2019 tweet {link removed} from cperciva@:

According to the FreeBSD Community Survey, 44% of people running FreeBSD in the cloud use Amazon #EC2.

You're welcome. ;-)

Fast-forward to 2023, one of my responses to the 2024 FreeBSD Community Survey pleaded for a GUI to Bluetooth (something like that). In retrospect, that was a slight waste of space because what I wanted was already planned (and I should have known, but I had boosted the toot below without paying attention to the linked email – my bad).

<{link removed}>

? The @FreeBSDFoundation is contracting work on the FreeBSD audio stack and is looking for comments and feedback
RFC - Work on FreeBSD's Audio Stack ?

 

[cmoerz]

I'd like to resurrect this for a moment, since the 2024 survey results are out. Apart from great results, I'd like to point out - you can actually get the raw data and look at it yourself. That's what I call transparency!

Results from the 2024 FreeBSD Community Survey Report | FreeBSD Foundation

Community input is essential for the well-being of any open source community, including FreeBSD. To understand how FreeBSD is used, identify successful community practices, and pinpoint areas for improvement, the FreeBSD Core Team and the FreeBSD Foundation collaborated with the research firm...

freebsdfoundation.org

 

[GlitchyDot]

Nice survey ! and im glad to see more than Lenovo/IBM stuff out there and somehow results did not disappoint.
76% ZFS - this is amazing - i did not vote in this survey but i would say same but i started to use freebsd due to logo and fed up with linux but now when people asks me why - ZFS is the first answer i provide.
p.s. i might be wrong - but this forums etiquette and freebsd lip to lip and internet writing reviews, helps and etc. about freebsd shows up in the survey. Maturity on display.

 

[kpedersen]

I'd like to resurrect this for a moment, since the 2024 survey results are out. Apart from great results, I'd like to point out - you can actually get the raw data and look at it yourself. That's what I call transparency!

I just had time to go through these. Looks really positive overall.

It states that only 50% of the use-case was for servers. Interesting. Though, this strongly suggested to me that there must have been more exposure to the survey from hobbyist individual channels (social media, etc). That would have been less valuable than an even weighted balance of survey "advertising".

But then I saw that desktop/laptop usage only had a combined 32%. Ultimately Cloud, Storage, Network appliances *are* servers are they not? So server usage is more close to 66%.
That said, "Individual" workstation use still looks slightly inflated to me (as much as I would love it to be true)...

 

[Cath O'Deray]

jbo@ please, did you have an earlier thought about one of the survey questions? (If not you: sorry, my muddled memory.)

Amongst the questions was:

If the project were to shorten LTS below your ideal timeframe, would you pay for extended support?