SEUL: draft survey: v.0.001

["Pete St. Onge" <pete_st_onge@iname.com>]

This is the current draft of the survey as of 18 Jun 1998. My appologies
for missing anyone's contribution - please let me know and I'll add it.
This thing is going to change on a daily basis, so expect it to be
mailed out frequently. :-)
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Changes since last: none (first of many drafts)
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[User Demographics]
     Experience with OS, which OS used, how long, what uses
OS's. Plural. I'm curious about experience and uses of all sorts of
os's -- linux, dos, os/2, win31, win95, winnt, mac, other unix (should
we just lump them? probably not quite that much.) User info will also
include name, email address (contact info), age, profession, income (?),

[System Info]
 - do multiple people use this system?  At same time/ w/o logging out?
 - do you have a computer network? (Opens option for NCs or terminals)
 - is user privacy important (one user can't read another's stuff)
 - is user security important (one user can't change another's
      files/settings)
 - do you have access to tech support/skilled users
 - current eval of tech support issues

[Operating System]
How important is:
* being able to use (read/write/both) other file save formats
* being able to get (and modify) the source
* PRICE
* reliability (doesn't crash often)
* prompt bugfixes (or hey, bugfixes at all)
* backwards compatibility (can i run old apps? do they run well?)
* being able to install/uninstall/upgrade single applications cleanly
* dependency checking (is there a windows counterpart to this?)
* being able to run it on old/slow hardware
* consistent user interface (things behave the same way even comparing
  between two separate applications)
* PnP support in hardware
* availability of a wide variety of apps (commercial, freeware?)
* software/hardware vendor support
* being able to connect to the machine remotely
* being able to run graphics remotely
* running servers (mail, httpd, samba, telnetd, ftpd, etc)
* speed!
* using a system that is compatible with your neighbor's
* being able to run something like doublespace (dynamic disk compressor)
* being able to taskswitch between applications quickly
* using a system which protects the user from making potential dangerous
changes to system configuration

[Spreadsheets]
    Experience with ss's, which ones used, how long
    Uses: Which of these are important / not important
      Carrying out simple calculations
      Being able to copy formulas across a range
      Using predefined formulas (ie. Average, Min, Max, etc.)
      Being able to read and save other formats
      Being able to do some statistical analysis

[Databases]
    Experience with db's, which ones used, how long
    Uses: Which of these are important / not important

[Programming Languages]
   Experience with pl's, which ones used, how long
   Uses: Which of these are important / not important
      Simple scripts to automate common tasks 1-4

[System Utilities]
 Uses: Which of these are important / not important
   being able to scan for viruses?
   being able to scan (with up to date virus info) for viruses?
   being able to defragment your hard drive?
   being able to make a backup of your system?
   being able to make backup copies of large data files?

-- 
Pete St. Onge - McGill U.  Limnology - Fun with Ropes & Buckets
pete_st_onge@iname.com         http://wwp.mirabilis.com/4322052