There wasn't any further discussion on the survey results, but I wanted to share my interpretations of the results anyway.
On Tue, Jul 13, 2021 at 6:30 PM Jim Hall <jh...@freedos.org> wrote: > [..] > 1. What do you use FreeDOS for? [..] > > Sifting through the "Other" results, some people used "Other" to > provide details about what software they were running. But a few > indicated some newer use scenarios that were not in the options. These > were variations on "Using FreeDOS to test systems and software" and > "Using FreeDOS to recover systems." > > Games: ################################################### [204] > Home: ############################################################# [243] > Work: ############ [45] > Devel: ########################### [108] > Embed: ###### [23] > BIOS: #################### [80] > +Recovery: ## [8] > +Testing: ## [7] > Not too surprising that the results have shifted here since the last time we did a user survey (I think 8 years ago). A lot of people are using FreeDOS for personal stuff, like playing games or running other DOS programs at home. "Games" and "Home" account for 62% of the results. Next up is "Devel" at 108 total count, or 15% of the results. And that's probably not a surprise either, since the survey included the FreeDOS email list. :-) And we're still seeing people using FreeDOS to install BIOS updates. 11% of respondents indicated they use FreeDOS to update BIOS. Interesting to see some folks are still using FreeDOS to run embedded systems. > 2. How do you run FreeDOS? [..] > However, the results clearly suggest I didn't write the question > clearly enough, so a lot of people misunderstood the question. I meant > this question to ask "do you run FreeDOS in a virtual machine, or on > 'bare metal' hardware?" And maybe I should have asked it that way. > > For example, a few folks did not answer "virtual box" but indicated in > "Other" that they used DOSEmu or DOSBox (neither was suggested in the > "virtual machine" option). Instead, these respondents answered > "modern" or "recent" PC hardware. > > Also note that "modern" PC hardware was defined as a system from 2020 > or 2021. This was a "control" option, because an Intel system released > in 2020 or 2021 does not support BIOS, and does not have the "Legacy" > option in UEFI. So at least those 49 are wrong. > > Virtual: ######################################################## [222] > Classic: ############################ [112] > Recent: ################################################ [190] > Modern: ############# [49] > This question is hard to interpret because I clearly asked the question in the wrong way. But I think the "virtual machine" and "classic hardware" responses are safe. I'd estimate half of "recent" and "modern" responses really indicate running FreeDOS on a virtual machine .. and the "recent" and "modern" responses were really an indication of what the *host* system was. If adjust numbers with that assumption: Virtual 341 Classic 112 (1981-2000) Recent 95 (2000-2020) Modern 24 (2020-2021) That suggests over half (59%) of respondents use virtual machines to boot FreeDOS, and 19% run FreeDOS on classic hardware (1981-2000). And the rest run FreeDOS on more recent hardware. I doubt anyone is really running FreeDOS on bare metal on a machine made in 2020 or 2021. At least for Intel systems, the PC spec says these machines do not include BIOS (they are UEFI only) and do not support "Legacy" mode in UEFI. But some may have misinterpreted the question .. as Eric suggests, some folks may have purchased parts to build their own systems, or maybe purchased an AMD system which does still support "Legacy" boot mode. > > 3. Does FreeDOS share the same hardware with another system? [..] > The details of the question (in smaller print underneath the question > itself) said that if you run FreeDOS in a virtual machine, you should > only answer "no" because this was about dual-booting. And while many > answered the question that way, many others did not. > > Because I asked the wrong question, the results were weird. Comparing > the responses with question 2, a lot of people who run FreeDOS only in > a VM (they didn't indicate real hardware) answered "Yes" on this > question. I don't trust the results on this one. > > FreeDOS: ##################################################### [157] > Linux: ############################ [83] > Windows: ###################### [64] > DOS: #### [12] > other: ######### [25] This is another poorly worded question. I think the best we can say is a majority of people use FreeDOS on its own (probably on its own virtual machine instance) and some people dual-boot FreeDOS with something else (more likely to be "DOS" than Linux or Windows, but we know anecdotally there are a few of those out there too.) > 4. What is your level of DOS experience? > 1 - I don't know that much about DOS, I'm still learning > ... > 10 - I feel like an expert in using DOS > > A few folks didn't answer this question, so I've indicated those blank > responses as "?" > > ?: ### [3] > (beginner) > 1: ####### [7] > 2: ####### [7] > 3: ######## [8] > 4: ########################### [27] > 5: ################################# [33] > 6: ########################## [26] > 7: ######################################################## [56] > 8: ################################################################# [65] > 9: #################################################### [52] > 10: ########################################################### [59] > (expert) > Not surprising to me, since I get a lot of emails from folks who clearly are experiencing DOS for the first time. I can see three "plateaus" in this chart: "beginner user" (6% are 1-3) "some experience" (25% are 4-6) and "more experienced" (68% are 7-10). My big takeaways from this survey are: (1) Most people use FreeDOS in 2021 for playing DOS games, running other DOS apps (work or home), writing new DOS programs, and doing some kind of "system" work (updating BIOS, testing systems, recovering systems). (2) A lot of people boot FreeDOS in a virtual machine, but there's a sizeable community of folks who run FreeDOS on actual hardware (such as "classic" collectors with XT/AT/'386/etc, and people running on post-2000 PC hardware). (3) Most (all?) who boot FreeDOS in a virtual machine are probably running a "FreeDOS-dedicated" virtual machine. If you're running FreeDOS on physical hardware, I'd guess you're probably dual-booting. (4) Most of the people who use FreeDOS are more experienced, but we shouldn't forget the "beginner" users or those with "some experience." Jim FYI: I rounded my "percent" numbers when reporting them here, so % may not add to 100% _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
