The [2015 git-annex user servey](http://git-annex-survey.branchable.com/polls/2015/)
is over with, and I'm reading through it and comparing with the
[2013 survey](http://git-annex-survey.branchable.com/polls/2013/).

37% fewer users responded to the 2015 survey than in 2013.
It's hard to tell if this has anything to do with the total number of
git-annex users; Debian's popcon suggests the number of users has doubled
since 2013, although its graph also suggests the number of users has
flattened off since 2014. The difference may just be that I 
promoted the 2013 survey better than the 2015 survey, perhaps reaching
kickstarter backers who I was in touch with back then.

25% use the assistant. Of those, 20% use XMPP, which is good to know as I'd
like to get rid of it.

Android use has quardrupled, and Windows use has doubled; both are now at
4%. It's not surprising that Android and Windows users still think more
porting work is needed for those OSes. iOS is the only unsupported OS that
more than 1% of users want. Embedded and NAS systems were mentioned much
less than in 2013; probably the
[[arm_tarball_build|forum/new_linux_arm_tarball_build]] met many such
needs.

About the same percentage of users prefer direct mode in 2015 as did in 2013,
and ditto for indirect mode. But, more users in 2015 only use direct mode
on platforms that force its use. Correlating with the OS percentages
suggests that many of these users are using removable media with the
FAT filesystem, rather than an OS like Windows or Android. Hopefully
v6 unlocked files will eventually better meet those user's needs.

The percent of users installing git-annex from source has halved since 2013,
and it seems that builds from this website have taken up most of that slack;
I would have expected more installs from Debian, Homebrew etc, but that
seems not to have increased.

The number of repositories per user has gone up quite a lot since 2013,
when only 7% of users had more than 10 repos. Now, 23% of users do. And,
2% of users have more than 100 repos! This probably involves both more
repositories for different purposes, and cloning of repositories
to more devices.

Similarly, the amount of data stored has gone up. 34% have more than 1
terabyte stored, up from 18% in 2013. 2% have more than 16 terabytes.

There's some indications of more users sharing repositories or
otherwise using it in teams of larger groups, although most users still use
it by themselves.

Users seem happier with git-annex now than in 2013. 16% call it "one of my
favorite applications of all time". And, significantly fewer find it too
hard to use than in 2013.

The main blocking problems are documentation, performance with many
files (a general git problem), and various issues with the assistant.
Respondants suggest more focus on making it easier for nontechnical users,
and for use in larger groups/organizations.
