help/en/html/doc/Technical/Poll2007.shtml

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      <h1>JMRI: 2007 User Poll</h1>
      <p>In late May and early June 2007, we ran three polls in the <a href=
      "http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jmriusers">jmriusers group</a>
      ( now hosted at <a href="https://groups.io/g/jmriusers">https://groups.io/g/jmriusers</a> )
      to learn more about what our users are actually using. This
      page reports the results. Ten years later it would be good to
      update our view of the user base.</p>

      <p>There's likely to be a selection bias in the responses.
      People who are actively involved with JMRI are more likely to
      subscribe to the jmriusers group, which was necessary to
      learn of the poll. They are possibly more likely to reply to
      the poll, and more likely to have a more recent version. We
      should take this into account when using the results.</p>

      <p>In the sections below, we summarize and interpret the
      results. The complete <a href="#raw">raw data</a> is
      available at the end of the page.</p>

      <h3>JMRI Version</h3>The poll asked which version of JMRI
      people were using. The results, in decreasing order of
      popularity, were:

      <ol>
        <li>74&#37; 1.7.6 (The most recent test release at that
        time)</li>

        <li>7&#37; 1.7.5</li>

        <li>5&#37; 1.6.1 (The most recent production release)</li>

        <li>5&#37; I build my own version from the code</li>

        <li>4&#37; 1.7.4 and 1.7.3 combined</li>

        <li>0&#37; Test releases in the 1.7 series before 1.7.3</li>
      </ol>
      One respondent (of 266) reported using "1.5 (any)", and
      one reported "1.4 (any)". These may be confusions with the
      Java version.

      <p>Note that 1.7.6 was the most recent test release, but it
      was quite old. The most recent production release, 1.6.1, was
      very old. This may have caused more people to use the most
      recent test release(s) than we would have normally found. The
      poll's selection bias may also have resulting in more people
      listing the most recent test release(s) than is true of the
      user population as a whole, thus understating the number of
      people who just download the more recent production version
      and run.</p>

      <h3>Java Version</h3>The poll asked which Java version JMRI
      was using. The results, in decreasing order of popularity,
      were:

      <ol>
        <li>35&#37; 1.5</li>

        <li>33&#37; 1.6</li>

        <li>20&#37; 1.4</li>

        <li>10&#37; 1.7</li>

        <li>0&#37; 1.3 or earlier</li>
      </ol>
      Out of 159 responses, there were zero users of Java 1.3
      or earlier. This is somewhat inconsistent with smallbut
      non-zero number of people who said they are using JMRI on
      original Macintosh computers, which use Java 1.1, but the
      response to this poll was small than to the operating system
      poll.

      <p>It's possible that 10&#37; of JMRI users have downloaded test
      distributions of Java 1.7 from Sun, but since Java 1.7 is not
      generally released yet it seems more likely that some of
      those responses are confusions with the JMRI release number.
      This in turn implies that the Java 1.6 number might be a
      little inflated by the same mechanism.</p>

      <h3>Operating System Version</h3>The poll asked which
      operating system and version was being using to run JMRI. The
      results, in decreasing order of popularity, were:

      <ol>
        <li>52% Windows XP (including SP1, SP2, Home and
        Professional)</li>

        <li>13% Windows 98</li>

        <li>11% Windows 2000</li>

        <li>9% Mac OS X - 10.4 or later</li>

        <li>8% Linux - combined types, with no clear leader among
        them</li>

        <li>3% Windows Vista</li>

        <li>2% Windows Millenium Edition</li>
      </ol>There were no respondents using Windows x64, Windows NT,
      or Windows 95. One respondent used "Windows Server (Any,
      including 2003)", and one "Windows (Other, including CE)".

      <p>There were four respondents (1.5%) who used Macintosh OS
      8.6, 9.0 or 9.1. All of the Mac OS X respondents were using
      version 10.3 (4 votes) or later (20 votes).</p>

      <p>Among only Linux varients, the responses were:</p>

      <ul>
        <li>5 Red Hat, including Centos</li>

        <li>4 Ubuntu</li>

        <li>4 Debian</li>

        <li>4 SUSE</li>

        <li>2 Other</li>

        <li>1 Gentoo</li>
      </ul>

      <p>Among other operating systems, there were no respondents
      indicating they used OS/2, or either "Other Unix-based" or
      "Other non-Unix-based". One respondent was using Solaris.
      <a name="raw" id="raw"></a></p>

      <h3>Raw Data</h3>The poll results are available from the
      <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jmriusers/polls">poll
      page</a> of the <a href=
      "http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jmriusers">jmriusers Yahoo
      group</a>.

      <h4>Operating System Poll</h4>The poll prompt was:

      <p><i>Which operating system do you run JMRI on? We'd like to
      know this to improve our testing and development. You can
      pick as many choices as you want, but please only select ones
      that you are using now, or are actually running on a computer
      that you're likely to put JMRI on soon.</i></p>

      <p>A total of 266 users answered the poll.</p>

      <table border="1">
        <tr>
          <th>Answer</th>

          <th>Number</th>

          <th>Fraction</th>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Windows 95</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Windows 98</td>

          <td>35 votes</td>

          <td>13.16%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Windows NT</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Windows 2000</td>

          <td>29 votes</td>

          <td>10.90%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Windows Millennium Edition</td>

          <td>6 votes</td>

          <td>2.26%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Windows Server (any, including 2003)</td>

          <td>1 votes</td>

          <td>0.38%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Windows x64 (any 64-bit, including XP and Vista)</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Windows XP (including SP1, SP2, Home and
          Professional)</td>

          <td>138 votes</td>

          <td>51.88%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Windows Vista (any except x64)</td>

          <td>7 votes</td>

          <td>2.63%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Windows (Other, including CE)</td>

          <td>1 votes</td>

          <td>0.38%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Mac OS X - 10.1, 10.2</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Mac OS X - 10.3</td>

          <td>4 votes</td>

          <td>1.50%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Mac OS X - 10.4 or later</td>

          <td>20 votes</td>

          <td>7.52%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Macintosh - 8.6, 9.0 or 9.1</td>

          <td>4 votes</td>

          <td>1.50%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Linux - Ubuntu</td>

          <td>4 votes</td>

          <td>1.50%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Linux - Red Hat (including Centos)</td>

          <td>5 votes</td>

          <td>1.88%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Linux - Yellow Dog</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Linux - Debian</td>

          <td>4 votes</td>

          <td>1.50%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Linux - Gentoo</td>

          <td>1 votes</td>

          <td>0.38%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Linux - SUSE</td>

          <td>4 votes</td>

          <td>1.50%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Linux - Other</td>

          <td>2 votes</td>

          <td>0.75%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>IBM OS/2</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Solaris - Intel or SPARC</td>

          <td>1 votes</td>

          <td>0.38%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Other Unix-based</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Other non-Unix-based</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>
      </table>

      <h4>Java Version Poll</h4>The poll prompt was:

      <p><i>Which version of Java do you use when running JMRI? If
      you're not sure, you can find out by starting DecoderPro and
      looking at the 2nd line on the startup window. It'll say
      something like "Java version 1.5.0_07 (en_US)"; we just want
      the first digits, e.g. 1.5. We want this information so we
      can understand what language features we can and can't use in
      JMRI. Please only enter what you're using now, not what you
      plan to use or have used in the past.</i></p>

      <p>A total of 159 users answered the poll.</p>

      <table border="1">
        <tr>
          <th>Answer</th>

          <th>Number</th>

          <th>Fraction</th>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.1</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.2</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.3</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.4</td>

          <td>32 votes</td>

          <td>20.13%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.5</td>

          <td>56 votes</td>

          <td>35.22%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.6</td>

          <td>54 votes</td>

          <td>33.96%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.7</td>

          <td>17 votes</td>

          <td>10.69%</td>
        </tr>
      </table>

      <h4>JMRI Version Poll</h4>The poll prompt was:

      <p><i>Which version of JMRI are you _currently_ running? If
      you're not sure, start DecoderPro or PanelPro and look at the
      startup window. It will say "DecoderPro
      1.something.something, part of the JMRI Project"; that's the
      number we're looking for. We want this information to help us
      understand how far back we should make e.g. decoder files
      compatible. Please don't enter versions you no longer use, or
      just plan to use in the future; we want to know what you're
      using now.</i></p>

      <p>A total of 168 users answered the poll.</p>

      <table border="1">
        <tr>
          <th>Answer</th>

          <th>Number</th>

          <th>Fraction</th>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>I build my own copy<br>
          from the code</td>

          <td>9 votes</td>

          <td>5.36%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.7.6</td>

          <td>125 votes</td>

          <td>74.40%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.7.5</td>

          <td>13 votes</td>

          <td>7.74%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.7.4</td>

          <td>2 votes</td>

          <td>1.19%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.7.3</td>

          <td>6 votes</td>

          <td>3.57%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.7.2</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.7.1</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.7.0</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.6.1</td>

          <td>10 votes</td>

          <td>5.95%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.6.0</td>

          <td>1 votes</td>

          <td>0.60%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.5 (any)</td>

          <td>1 votes</td>

          <td>0.60%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.4 (any)</td>

          <td>1 votes</td>

          <td>0.60%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.3 (any)</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>1.2 (any)</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
          <td>Before 1.2</td>

          <td>0 votes</td>

          <td>0.00%</td>
        </tr>
      </table>

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