Reader Survey: What does free software mean to you?

June 1998

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hat would the world look like without BIND, Perl, or sendmail?

It's a difficult question to answer. Since you don't need a license to use or even resell this software, hard data on free software is often hard to come by. Ask Larry Wall how many Perl users there are out there, and he'll shrug and say he can tell you only how many copies of Programming Perl O'Reilly has sold (500,000).

How important is free software to you? Do you tinker around with source code at work? Are you even "allowed" to? Which applications do you use? Fill out this month's reader survey and let us know what free software means to you.

To make things cleaner, we have not included Netscape's Mozilla code in the survey, and we've borrowed Eric Raymond's term "open source," to define what we mean by free, redristributable software whose source code is openly available.

1. Which of the following open source products do you have installed for work use? Select all that apply.

 Apache
 BIND
 FreeBSD
 GNU Utilities
 InterNetNews
 Linux
 Perl
 Python
 Sendmail
 Tcl
 Other
 Don't use open source products for work

2. Which of the following open source products do you have installed for personal use? Select all that apply.

 Apache
 BIND
 FreeBSD
 GNU Utilities
 InterNetNews
 Linux
 Perl
 Python
 Sendmail
 Tcl
 Other
 Don't use open source products for personal use

If you don't use open source products, skip to question 14.

3. Which one of the following best describes your company's open source policy?

 All open source software may be used
 Some open source software may be used
 No open source software may be used
 Don't ask, don't tell
 My company has no open source policy

4. How important is open source code to your work?

 Very important
 Somewhat important
 Not very important
 Not at all important

5. Which of the following are your sources of software technical support for open source software? Please select your top 2 sources only.

 Direct support from vendors
 Newsgroups
 World Wide Web
 Colleagues
 Books
 Software documentation (e.g. man pages)
 Other

6. Which of the following are your sources of software technical support for non-open source software? Please select your top 2 sources only.

 Direct support from vendors
 Newsgroups
 World Wide Web
 Colleagues
 Books
 Software documentation (e.g. man pages)
 Other

7. In the past 12 months, how often have you downloaded open source software from the Internet for work use?

 At least once a day
 At least once a week
 At least once a month
 At least once in the past 12 months
 Didn't download open source programs in the past 12 months

8. In the past 12 months, how often have you downloaded open source software from the Internet for personal use?

 At least once a day
 At least once a week
 At least once a month
 At least once in the past 12 months
 Didn't download open source programs in the past 12 months

9. When was the last time you did any trouble-shooting by examining an open source program's code?

 Within the last month
 Within the last 6 months
 Within the last 12 months
 More than 12 months ago
 Never

10. When was the last time you modified an open source code to better suit your work needs?

 Within the last month
 Within the last 6 months
 Within the last 12 months
 More than 12 months ago
 Never

11. When was the last time you modified an open source code so that it better suits your personal needs?

 Within the last month
 Within the last 6 months
 Within the last 12 months
 More than 12 months ago
 Never

12. What is the principal OS you are using to run open source software for work use?

13. What is the principal OS you are using to run open source software for personal use?

14. How many employees work in your entire company?

 Less than 100
 100 - 499
 500 - 999
 1,000 - 4,999
 5,000 or more

15. How many employees work at your worksite only?

 Less than 10
 10 - 49
 50 - 99
 100 - 499
 500 or More

16. Which one of the following best describes your job title?

Thank you for taking the time to fill out this short survey about open source products. If you have any comments on either open source software or this survey, drop us a line at sweditors@sunworld.com.

If you have technical problems with this magazine, contact webmaster@sunworld.com

URL: http://www.sunworld.com/swol-06-1998/swol-06-readersurvey.html
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